Soul Etude
by Lateral Ganon
Summary: A Latios and a Latias in love, torn apart as they came of age, find themselves transported to the region of Kraith. Lost without the other, they hang on desperately to the thought that they may one day find each other again. Eonshipping. Chapter 9 up.
1. Prologue

Before questioning something, it may help to have read TGF first. Mainly because these two stories are intertwined heavily, and reading one then the other will reveal some otherwise unnoticed kes. Some questions have been asked, which after reading TGF become painfully apparant and an embarrassment for them to have asked in the first place.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, but I do own the locations and characters I write in this story.

Warning: Contains mild swearing from various grumpy characters in later chapters.

_Lateral Ganon._

**# # # Notes # # #**

The Latios and Latias are about four foot and three-and-a-half foot long respectively. Obviously, this means neither of them are fully grown.

* * *

**Prologue:**

The blue and white Pokemon landed heavily on his back on the rocky outcrop, bouncing once from the impact before landing again. He looked back up at the night sky from which he had fallen. The portal above him was closing, the arms spiralling back into the centre as it collapsed in on itself.

"No!" The Pokemon cried as he tried to lift itself off the ground. He screamed as fresh bolts of agony coursed through his body; his left wing was broken underneath him when he landed from the 500 metre fall. He looked back up at the portal, energy still radiating from its core like lightning as it constricted, closing his way back to the comfort of the Latios Nursery.

"No!" He screamed again, flinging out one of his arms in a desperate attempt to try and keep it open. The portal shivered, and cracked loudly. A bright flash of light burst from the point, and then vanished. He was trapped there, never to return. He threw back his head and wailed loudly. He was too young to be abandoned here. He wailed for a long time, but it gradually petered off into little more than a pathetic whine. He leant forwards, and cooed softly to himself. They knew he couldn't survive out here on his own, but still they forced him out.

He looked around at his surroundings, hoping to find anyone or anything that could help him. He appeared to have landed at the bottom of a small canyon with a river running through one side of it. To his left, a beautiful waterfall was pounding away at the bare rock below, splitting into five arching columns of water. Trees were growing sparsely out of the ground around it, more than likely sheltering smaller Pokemon that had chosen to live there. He shivered slightly as the breeze stampeded through the valley, and he suddenly realised how cold he was. His temperature was related to his mood. He cried slightly as he realised everything that had been left behind. His friend was still up there, still living in the nursery that was their home until they were only twelve years old, when they were pushed into the real world to fend for themselves, and find their purposes in life. His egg had been abandoned there because his parents couldn't look after it. He would always swear that he would never leave any of his own children to that fate. The Latios nursery was a terrible place for an orphan.

He looked up to the sky with longing. As far as he was aware, he was the only one whose birthday was in January, so no-one else would be coming down to keep him company. He was truly alone.

He could hear men shouting from above him. Clearly the dimensional activity had attracted the attention of a civilisation nearby, and they were coming to investigate. He had to hide. As a legendary Pokemon, he'd be a prime target for poachers. He quickly turned invisible, and the Latios limped into a cave at the base of the ravine, to sleep. Tomorrow, he'd have to fix his wing so he could fly again, until then, he was grounded. He curled up against the rocky wall, and whimpered slightly through the night, eventually falling asleep.

* * *

THUD!

The red and white Pokemon landed heavily on her front onto a cold tiled pavement, hitting the sidewalk with her face. She looked back up at the sky to see a dimensional anomaly above her spark out of existence above her, leaving nothing but the starry night sky. She looked around to see strange residential buildings in every direction. She must have landed in a heavily populated area. She could clearly see people walking across the street ahead of her, but no-one down the actual road she was on. A terrible stench met her nostrils, and she looked around noticing why no-one was on that street. She saw she had narrowly missed landing in a dumpster. She backed away from it, only to hit another one. The stench was becoming unbearable, and it would likely attract...

A Koffing flew out of the dumpster and flew straight at her, pungent vegetable matter dripping from it's gaping maw. She screamed and took flight, escaping as the Koffing dived into the other dumpster to feed on rotting matter that didn't bear thinking about. She flew up into the sky as quickly as she could, desperate to get out of the city. She made her way past the outskirts of the town, and flew for miles over green open country. She looked around over the land and eventually settled down in a series of hedgerows about ten miles from any town. She crawled into the bushes, and pushed branches aside to make a more comfortable hollow. She took her head in her claws and sobbed silently. Why her? Why did she have to be forced out now? She still didn't even know how to turn invisible, which was crucial skill for the real world. It could be terrible if someone saw her in this form, and…

In this form. She smiled slightly as she remembered. She was the best in her group at shape shifting. She could turn into anything she wanted. She quickly looked around for a large stone to imitate, and memorized the image. Obviously she'd have to find another form to be able to hide her identity as a legendary and be able to move around. The Latias then immediately transformed into the rock to fall asleep.

* * *

It won't hurt to read the next chapter. Regardless, it's better than this one. I can't do prologues, and this is just a sacrifice to make sure it starts properly.


	2. Finding Your Feet

Try not to get bored of it yet... It will get better...

Same warnings/disclaimers apply. I own Mildred, Lomar, and Martin, as well as the Kraith region and associated locations.

_Lateral Ganon_

# # # Chapter Specific Notes # # #

_Italics are the Latios's thoughts. He can't use telepathy yet, so no-one else can hear them._

The Latios and Latias Nurseries are separate places (The dimension it resides in is splinched, but don't worry too much about it now), separated by an inpenetrable barrier (like a wall of blue marble, the scar of the splinch) which completely blocks access to the other side.

A ruled line means that I'm swapping between which Lati is the focus.

* * *

**Day 2: Finding Your Feet**

The Latios woke up in the cave feeling almost fully refreshed, and he rolled over, all worries forgotton. He squealed and leapt up immediately when he rolled onto his injured wing and crushed it. He arched his head around to face his injury, and ran his left claw along it. He winced as he touched the sore spot. He looked back at his claw, and tried to summon some energy to allow him to repair his wings. It was a skill he was rather gifted at during his life in the Nursery. He needed to be, as he was generally rather clumsy whilst he was still at the nursery, even though it would be hard to concentrate enough when pain was coursing through his left side. He tried once, doing nothing except turning his hand orange, he returned it to normal before trying again. The second time he tried, he managed to set his hand on fire, causing him to have to hobble out quickly to dip it into the brook. He winced as he looked at the seared digits. The blacked claw looked grotesque. That was his best hand, and he cursed himself for not thinking to use his weaker hand. At least then he wouldn't have minded as much about burning it. He turned to his other claw, and smiled as he immediately succeeded in making it glow blue.

He ran it other his best hand to repair the burnt tissue, before trying to put it onto his injured wing to try to heal that. He reached out, and moaned as the wing pulled away from his hand. He turned around after it, trying to reach it, but the wing kept getting pulled backwards. He couldn't reach, as he was spinning around in a small circle.

"Damn it!" He cried out so loudly that a pair of Swellows were woken from their sleep. The larger one yawned slightly, before they both flew over to look at him.

"Well. Look at what we have here Mildred, Isn't this a funny looking creature." said one of the avians. He had a distinctly deep voice which didn't suit his light frame.

"Right you are Lomar. Wonder where he came from." Said the slightly smaller one. From its voice, the Latios could tell it was female. He looked at the pair and noticed how bizarre they looked. He had only ever seen other Latios before. He leant over to look at them more closely, and was surprised that they did not appear to have skin of any kind. Their entire body was predominantly _feathers_!

"What are you?" He asked them. The creatures were about half his size, but he could tell by the beaks that it wouldn't be too hard for them to cause him serious injury.

"Well that's a bit rude, asking _what _we are. I guess we could ask the same question of you bluey." Mildred said indignantly, ruffling her feathers to show her distaste.

"Now now darling, I'll take care of this. We are a pair of Swellows. We are a bird species native to Kraith."

"Kraith?"

"The region you're in now, stupid. The capital is Oapert City, about 250 miles north of here. This is the Segon Valley you're sat in at the moment, usually known as the greatest natural feature of the place. Who are you stranger?"

"Oh? I'm Ganon. I'm a Latios from the Lateral Realm."

"Never heard of it." Mildred said immediately. Ganon rolled his eyes.

"Of course you've never heard of it, it's a closely guarded secret of the L… Oh." Ganon said, stopping when he realised what he'd just blurted out. He mentally scolded himself.

"A closely guarded secret. Suuuure." Mildred said laughing slightly. Ganon scowled at her.

"Hush. Well I presume then, Ganon, that you are new to this region, and you'll need some help getting to learn about the place."

"What?" Ganon asked.

"You know, places to avoid, good places to find food, where the medicinal herbs are located…"

"Ugh! Don't talk to me about herbs!" Ganon said wincing at the word. He absolutely hated them. Every time he lost at a mock battle he was always force-fed an energy root to revive him. The sheer bitterness was often more damaging than the entire battle.

"Yeah, they really aren't all that tasty. Nothing like a good worm." Mildred said, nodded slightly.

"Worms?" Ganon asked. Lomar cut back in.

"You probably wouldn't be too suited to worms laddy. For someone your size, fish is about the only natural option. You could always try and steal a few crops off of one of the farms at the top of the ravine, but that's risky. The farmers have guns, and there aren't any herbs that can cure that." Lomar added, shaking his head solemnly. Mildred nodded alongside him. Ganon felt dizzy from watching their heads shaking in different directions, and keeled over slightly, landing on his injured wing. He hissed as it bent the broken limb the other way.

"So you mean you'd act like parents for me?" Ganon said, restraining the whimper in his voice. This could be good. Only a few hours into the new world and he already had some friends. Even better, they wanted to teach him everything he needed to know about the place. Now he wouldn't be so doomed. The smaller swellow hopped up to his injured wing.

"You can't fly on that wing can you? It looks sore." Mildred said, looking concerned. Being a flying creature, she had a lot of empathy for Ganon's injury. She could tell from his face that he was in pain, regardless how much he hid it. Ganon just scowled at her again.

_Sore?! It's bent straight back on itself!_

"Hold on a minute, I'll get you a herb." And she flew off.

"No! Not a herb! I hate herbs!" He tried to yell after her. She wasn't listening though, as she went to her nest and pulled out a large blue leaf.

"Now hold still." She said. Ganon leaned his head back, trying to get his head as far away from the leaf as possible. She rolled her eyes at his assumption.

"You can't eat Torlue. Well, you can, but it'll kill you because it's toxic." She said, as she draped the leaf over his limb. He instantly felt the pain go away. He flexed his wing experimentally, and found that it no longer hurt. It still had an extra joint where the bone was broken, but at least it didn't hurt. The sight of a new joint actually freaked him out a bit.

"Stop moving your wing! Torlue is just an anaesthetic. We need to make you a splint." She was about to fly back into the canopy.

"Stop." Ganon said. It was the pain that had prevented him from being able to heal it himself earlier, and now that it was gone, he could do the rest himself.. He looked back at his left claw, and it glowed a blue colour. Both birds jumped back in shock, and immediately flew behind a section of rock jutting out of the cave floor.

"What the hell are you doing, trying to attack us?! We're just trying to help!" Lomar cried out. Ganon looked at him confused. It was as though this Pokemon had never seen this ability before.

"What on earth are you on about? This isn't an attack. I'm trying to repair my wing. Watch." Ganon said. He pushed his hand onto the broken section of wing, and rubbed it gently. The wingtip raised itself so the edge was straight once more, and a slight hissing sound was heard as the bone fused back together. The bruises surrounding the fracture disappeared. The Swellows looked awestruck. They sat there and gaped for a while, before Mildred finally said something.

"What was that?"

"Latios's have the power to fix broken things. Usually other objects that I broke. That was the first time I ever tried it on myself."

"And I presume that's another closely guarded Latios secret."

Ganon winced as he realised he'd done it again. He lifted himself off the ground, testing his newly healed wing. It worked exactly as it had done before the impact, he smiled and did a loop. He succeeded in banging his head on the floor as he came back down, and flinched. He shook his head to dislodge the fuzzy feeling, and looked back at the Swellows. They rolled their eyes at him.

"Well Ganon. It looks like you can fly fine now. So let's get going shall we? You have a lot to learn." Lomar said. Ganon nodded, and immediately turned to follow the pair that had adopted him. They flew up above the ravine, and flew over the various areas of farmland, woodland, and lakes that surrounded it. It was a beautiful change from the Latios Nursery where he had spent his whole life up to that moment.

"Kenai's maths worked a charm as usual..." Lomar whispered over to Mildred, just out of earshot of the Eon following behind. Mildred nodded, careful not to catch the youngsters attention.

"Yeah... but the orders to play dumb drive me nuts." She muttered resentfully, "He should just collect them himself. I'm sure he could overpower one easily enough."

"Huh?" Ganon called, having noticed Mildred's vague muttering. Lomar frowned at her, and she coughed quickly.

"Nothing. I was just telling Lomar that I just spotted where we should start teaching you."

They swooped down into a dense forest to begin Ganon's distraction... sorry, instruction.

* * *

The Latias was just waking up. She tried to rub her eyes, but then realised that she was a rock and couldn't move. She scolded herself for her stupidity and transformed back into her natural form. After she rubbed the sleep from her eye, she looked around. She was still hidden in the hedgerows. She wondered why she was there before remembering she had been evicted from the Latias Nursery. She whimpered softly to herself.

Her stomach rumbled ominously, and she realised she was hungry. She hadn't eaten since before she was forced out. She flew out of hiding, and looked around at where she had chosen to spend the night. If she wasn't so preoccupied about being an outcast, she would have appreciated the view; miles of open grassland could be seen in every direction, gradually growing into thick forests towards the hills around the edge. Far away in the north-east, she could just make out the sea, with a cluster of building just discernable from the horizon. She looked up and saw a thick tree growing bright red fruits above her. She recognised them as apples and reached up to take one. She bit into it happily, and rolled the flavour in her mouth, savouring the texture and sweetness. There was nothing like this back in the Nursery. Everything there was bland and boring, usually to offset the colourfulness of all the girls personalities.

She was so absorbed in memories of the other girls that she didn't notice a small Mudkip wandered up from a hollow in the base of the tree, and began yelling at her.

"What are you doing here? You're trespassing on my private property."

She looked down at the little Pokemon and smiled sweetly. The little thing looked so cute. She reached down and stroked it on the head.

"Ooh. Bad move girlie." He said, before savagely biting her claw. She recoiled in pain, with him still clinging on. It tightened it's grip on her claw.

"Get off, get off, get off, get off, get off, get off, get off!" She screamed at it, waving it around her head like a sling. It mumbled something through its grasp. She realised that in order to hear it, she'd have to stop spinning it around wildly. She lowered the Pokemon back to the floor, where it fell off, and staggered around confused.

"What were you trying to say?"

"So…many stars! Ooh! Proddy proddy!" he said, clearly oblivious to the Latias in front of him, whilst prodding at invisible orbs with it's paws. She picked him up, and put him back in the hollow of the trunk, before looking back at the bite mark on her hand. It was heavily bruised, but the teeth hadn't actually penetrated. She heard a sudden cluttering of metal from inside the tree, as the Mudkip came around and ran back out.

"What do you think you're doing spinning me around like that girlie?!"

"You bit me. I was trying to get you off because it was hurting."

"Ooh! La di da, Miss Theif."

"I'm not a thief."

"Yeah, then why are you stealing my apples? Huh?!" The Mudkip was shaking with uncontrollable rage, and a strange light was shining from it.

"Er, why are you glowing?"

"What do you mean why am I glowing? I'm not glowing!"

"Yes you… Argh!"

She flung a claw over her eyes as a sudden blinding flash of light burst from the Mudkip. As it faded, she could hear a lot of swearwords coming from in front of her. There wasn't a Mudkip there anymore, it was a Marshtomp.

"SEE WHAT YOU WENT AND MADE ME DO?! I'VE BLINKING EVOLVED, YOU SPANNER!!! I can't even fit in my house anymore!"

"What's so important about your house?"

"Well, duh! It's got all my stuff in it!"

"I could get it out for you and I could help you find a new home." She offered politely. The Marshtomp scoffed at her.

"You're too big, numbskull. You'd never… What the?!" The Latias suddenly shapeshifted into a Mudkip.

"How the hell did you do that?!" He said pointing at the creature before him. It wasn't a perfect copy, it was bright red instead of turquoise.

"I'm a Latias. It's one of my powers. Now what do you need bringing out?"

"Well, considering I'm now stuck on the road with you, I'll need my backpack, and the food from the larder."

Latias entered the Mudkips home. It was an absolute pigsty! Everything was everywhere. How he could find anything in this mess was a miracle. It was small and circular room set into the heart of the place. The room was sectioned off into three sections, one that looked like a bedroom, one that looked like a hoard of apples, and the main room. The main room had a small table and a fully outfitted kitchen along one wall.

"Where's the backpack?" She asked him.

"Under the table, there's also some human money next to the sink."

"Why have you got a sink in here?! There's no running water."

"I'm a water Pokemon, stupid."

After about ten minutes, she had eventually found all of the Marshtomp's belongings that he would need with him. She brought it out, and he rummaged through the contents. He shrugged it onto his shoulders. She turned back into a Latias, and shook herself. Being in such a small form was certainly uncomfortable.

"Well, I guess you're stuck with me now, eh Latias. Might as well learn each others names, it's not polite to call someone by their species. Mine's Martin. What's yours?"

"My name is Laura. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Martin." She said as she resumed her Latias form, "Why do you have human money? Is it important?" Laura asked him.

"Well, I used to travel about a bit with a Ditto. He was always trying to turn into a human so he could be more important. I used to fight for him when he was pretending to be a trainer. The money was the winnings that we split. Unfortunately, he fell through a sewer grate once when he was in his normal form."

"Ouch!" Laura cried out. Martin nodded.

"Ouch indeed. He melted into the filth below before he could transform into something stable. Must be awful, dissolving into sh-"

"I get the gist thank you very much! Can you please keep the language a bit cleaner? I am only a child you know."

"It's my nature. Get used to it." He said, as he began to set up a large tent.

* * *

"WHOA! Ganon! Stop!" Lomar cried out as Ganon settled down to look at a pretty flower. He raked a claw on his head, pulling it back up just as the plant gave a loud snap which a set of lethal jaws clasped together right where his head had been. He recoiled from it and flew back into the air as he saw the plants maw slowly open again.

"If you keep sticking your nose into things, you better remember that some of those things bite back."

Ganon paled as he saw another similar plant nearby spit out a set of Pidgey bones.

"That plant isn't well. Usually it can eat the bones too."

Ganon paled again. That was hardly a consolation, before taking wing above the level which the plants could reach him. Lomar studied his flight patten carefully, making a mental note of every inconsistency before following after.

* * *

A few hours later, Martin had finished the tent, with a little help from Laura.

"Why is that tent so big?" Laura asked. The tent could easily fit both Latias and Marshtomp in with room to walk.

"This tent was Ditto's when he used to become human. He didn't like sleeping in his gelatinous form because he could dribble off somewhere whilst he slept."

Martin then pulled out a portable stove and had settled down to cook an apple tart. It would have been rather heavy, but the bag he was using had been a very special leaving present from when he retired from Razor. It tapped into the same system used by Pokeballs, by using non-dimensional space. In essence, it was a bag that could hold any number of things that could fit through the top, whilst remaining at the same weight as a normal bag.

After an hour or so, he decided that cooking was too boring, and suddenly came up with a very good idea.

"Hey Laura, if you can transform into me, can you transform into a human?"

"Why?"

"I know about species of Pokemon. I'd consider myself an expert. And I know that a Latias is what is known as a legendary Pokemon. That makes you extremely valuable to humans, as legendaries are typically considerably more powerful than regular folks like myself. Unless you absolutely trust them, it would not be a good idea to let anyone know you are a legendary. As a human, you'd be comparatively inconspicuous."

Martin watched as Laura tried to shapeshift into a human several times. She had never tried to become a human before; she had only seen what they looked like in those brief few seconds escaping from the city, and the memory was fuzzy already.

"Nope, just one head… Nope, they have arms as well… ARGH!!! They wear clothes for a reason Laura!"

Laura blushed slightly as she looked down. She could see Martin shielding his eyes from the naked human before him. She tried to talk to him, but found that no sound came out. She struggled and eventually managed to make a quiet noise like a rasping growl, and ended up choking on her own saliva. She turned back into a Latias, and spoke to Martin.

"What sort of clothes do they wear?" She asked him. He was still shielding his eyes, so he didn't know she had changed back. He groped about aimlessly in his backpack until he came across a magazine. He hurled it in front of Latias, who picked it up and flicked through the pages. They were mostly of girls in dresses. She found one design that she particularly liked, and focused the image in her mind, but there was still something distracting her.

"Martin, why do you have a magazine about human girls?" She said, teasing him slightly.

"Ditto always transformed into a male. That's enough detail. Just look through it. It'll let you get the shape right too. Just for goodness sake, put some clothes on!"

"I'm already back in normal form. But I'm going to try again. Okay?"

He removed his arm and watched as she turned into a beautiful red-headed girl wearing an elegant dress. It was red with a white chest piece, and a satin bow around her waist. She twirled in it experimentally, and grinned at her handiwork. She ran her human hand through the material, and was amazed by its softness. She saw from her hands that she had fair skin. Even Martin was amazed by her transformation, and he looked down at the picture she'd refferred to. The original girl in question was a very popular pop singer, which could cause complications.

"Too dressy."

She scowled at him. She was really proud of her handiwork, but decided to just change the clothes. She was happy with this body shape; it gave her a nice hourglass figure which was very desireable judging by the pictures. She focused on some of the clothes she had seen the people wearing last night, and she began to glow blue again. She was now wearing jeans and a red t-shirt, and looked simply like a considerably younger version of the girl from the magazine.

"Perfect. Now you look just like a young girl." Martin said, barely noticing the light drizzle that was beginning to fall, "Even better, you could pass for a Pokemon Trainer."

She smiled and patted him on the head gently. He bared his fangs, and she withdrew he hand quickly, feeling rather partial to her new fingers. Almost as sudden as the drizzle had arrived, the rain picked up in ferocity and within seconds rain was pelting down soaking her new attire to the skin.

"Hmmm... You're a dragon right? You don't want to catch pnemonia. And its getting late. Best idea, time to go to sleep."

Laura transformed back into her regular form, and immediately moved into the tent, shaking the water off in the doorway. She turned around as she entered the sleeping area, resting herself on the ground, to face the doorway. Outside, she noticed that Martin was moving away from the tent.

"You don't sleep?" She asked him, watching as Martin began prodding the ground where puddles were beginning to form. He shook his head at her presumption.

"I have a better sense of comfort." He said, apparantly satisfied with a patch of ground and lying on it. Scooping up paw-fulls of sodden earth, he smeared them over his limbs, encasing himself in the mud, "I don't often get this luxuary."

* * *

"Well Ganon, you certainly seem to have got the hang of this." Lomar said, preening himself. He had laid out a selection of herbs, and Ganon had identified them all correctly. It had taken most of the day, but he had shown he was capable of learning things, something Lomar took care to remember.

As Ganon looked into the sky again, he sighed. He missed the Nursery still. He tilted his head slightly as he noticed a dark cloud brewing from one side of the sky. He looked over to the heart of it, and noticed lightning crackling under it. For some reason, he felt a tang of sadness as he looked over at it. Some part of him was in as much turmoil as the storm brewing on the horizon.

"He's spacing out at the storm. Is that a good thing?" Mildred asked quietly. Lomar shook his head.

"Probably not... we should send him over tomorrow. Just in case his condition deteriorates." He whispered back, before flapping up next to the Latios, "Its time to go back now. You'll need to use that cave again, since you're too big to fit in our nest."

Ganon reluctantly followed the pair back to the canyon, periodically looking back over his wing at the clouds.

* * *


	3. The Human Factor, Part 1: Morning

# # # Chapter Specific notes # # #

This chapter takes place between early morning (06:30) and mid afternoon (14:00). That gives you a sense of time scale.

This is actually in all my stories so far, but when Eon's dream, its usually memories.

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Human Factor (Part 1: Morning)**

Ganon was sleeping, dreaming he was back in the nursery.

He had been picked on by some of the younger boys who were bigger than him, and had gone to sit by himself in his favourite space besides the Wall. It was sheltered from the rest of the nursery by bushes, so no-one could see he was there. He often found a strange solace in talking to himself there, able to speak freely without fear of reprisal. Not as though anyone else could hear him, being about a kilometre from the main building.

"Those boys always pick on me. They gang up deliberately just to try and make my life miserable. I hate being the smallest one here. I don't even have any friends."

"You too huh?" He heard a voice say softly from the other side of the wall. It was definitely female, but there were no females in the Latios Nursery. He panicked and flew back to the nursery, immediately flying into his room. He pulled the covers over his head to hide, shivering slightly to the amusement of the other boys. He vowed never to tell the other boys about the voice.

- - - - - - -

"Hey! Sleepy head! Wake up!" He heard Mildred shouting outside the cave. He groaned sleepily and flipped himself back over, staring up the tree. Both Swellows were glaring at him with a scorning glance.

"There's something you're not telling us laddy. I can tell. You're all tense, and during the night you spontaneously turned orange." Lomar said to him. Ganon hung his head in shame. There was something he was holding back, not out of trying to hide it from them, but the fact that he wasn't very good at it. He looked up at the birds who were gazing expectantly at him. He decided it would be better to tell them straight off.

"I can shapeshift." He said, before glowing blue all over and suddenly becoming a Swellow. The real Swellows gasped in horror as they saw him. It looked like a Swellow that had lost all its feathers, and had an extra pair of wings. Overall, it just looked vile.

"Turn back! You need a lot of practice." Lomar said disgusted as he watched the Latios return to normal. Lomar shook his head tutting for a while, before an awkward silence eventually encompassed the group. Ganon poked the ground experimentally for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

"We're leaving this valley." Mildred announced out of the blue. Ganon stared at her incredulously and began to stutter something, but was stopped as she raised a wing.

"This gorge isn't big enough for you here. We had a look around before you woke up, and we saw a nice little town just ahead. We decided it would be a nicer home than in here."

"So we're moving house! Catch!" Lomar cried out as he pushed the nest off the branch and onto Ganon. It landed on his head, scratching his face with the bits of branches sticking out the bottom.

"Are you sure?" Ganon said as he pulled the nest off his face. He couldn't help but feel slightly taken advantage of.

"Absolutely certain. You need to practice your shape shifting abilities, and we've decided the most useful shape for you would be human."

"But how did you know that I could shapeshift before?"

"We're clever, and we worked it out based on our line of work. But anyway, think about it Ganon. Humans have the biggest brain compared to their size. If you can mimic a human, your own learning process will be accelerated. Effectively, you will become amazingly powerful very quickly." Lomar said.

"But I don't want power."

"Then what do you want, my boy?" Mildred asked him. Ganon looked down at the floor ashamedly, and shook his head. Telling them _that _would have been even more embarrassing than demonstrating his shapeshifting ability. Even if he did tell them, there was no way the Swellows could find _her_.

"Then what are you waiting for? Come on!" Lomar cried back down at him. Ganon followed the birds down the river, carrying their nest along with them. He looked into it, and noticed that it had been packed full to the brim of various items.

"Had this idea in mind for quite a while haven't you, Lomar?" Ganon said with a slight smile.

"Yep." He cawed back, "The canyon gets boring after a while."

"I was refferring to the amount of stuff in here."

"Weight training. That's good enough isn't it?" Mildred laughed back at him. Ganon laughed slightly too, but his claws were already aching.

They passed over a series of waterfalls that lined the canyon walls, flapping through the mist at the bottom. If Ganon wasn't so preoccupied with making his arms remain attached to his torso, he'd have had more time to actually appreciate it. As such, he had to endure about five hours of discomfort, although the end results had better be worth it. On and on they flew until they reached a small town surrounded on one side by a dense forest, and the other side by the river. Buildings were scattered around the basin neatly, all centred around the PokeCentre in the middle.

"And this, Ganon, is your new home. Welcome to Cemusem Village!"

They flew over to the forest edge and chose a good tree to put the nest on, leaving Ganon up there to pivot it into place.

"Hmmm... We'll give him a few days to pick a form, then Kenai can have him." Mildred suggested, earning a nod from Lomar just as Ganon flew back down to the ground.

"Well, everything is set up now, time to meet the neighbours, don't you think?" Lomar asked everyone.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to check out the human village. I really could do with familiarising myself with the human shape." He said, before turning invisible and flying off into the town. Mildred looked back to Lomar.

"Impulsive child. He's just revealed another of his Latios secrets as well." She said, shaking her head slightly. A long string of curses came from mid-air next to them.

"Language child!" Lomar shouted after him as Ganon flew into the main village.

Ganon was floating through the village quietly, looking at each and every person that he passed. They all seemed to have similar characteristics, but never any two exactly the same. He was surprised, because pretty much all Pokemon of a species looked exactly the same. He looked at each face, committing any feature he liked to memory. So far he had built up a generic picture of how he wanted to look, but was still stumped by what he should wear as a human. He floated idly past a tailors shop and saw a very important looking man being compared to a length of yellow tape. The man appeared pleased with a black waistcoat he was wearing. Ganon nodded idly at the combo.

The man modelling the clothes though looked too old for Ganon's taste though, and none of the clothes seemed to suit his personality either. He looked in through the window again, before he felt something hit the back of his head. He looked around quickly and saw a small gang of children running after a football that was bouncing the other way. Now these children knew how to dress, much more colourful. He looked at the polo shirts and the jeans that some of them were wearing, comparing them with the T-shirts and shorts that some other kids were wearing. He didn't really like the shorts, human legs looked too skinny.

He flew back to the seclusion of the nest. He put the images together in his mind and focused on it. He glowed a dull blue, before he flashed once. He looked down at himself, and was pleased to see that he was wearing some reasonable trousers and a rough shirt. Well, the trousers were blue, rather than the original green the boy he'd modelled them off was wearing, but now he saw it, he seemed to like them better in blue. He looked into the nest and pulled out a shiny stone so he could look at his face. He scowled at his reflection, and was surprised by the amount of menace his new face was showing. He made various stupid faces at the rock, each more humorous than the last, when he saw Mildred and Lomar return. He waved at them, forgetting that he was in human form. He was confused when they backflapped slightly away from the nest, but his train of thought was punctured as they screeched loudly, and began to divebomb him. He could only hear them screeching at him as he tried to bat them away frantically. They were pecking ferociously at his face and arms. He tried to lean back further and further to dodge their attacks, and was forced to take tiny steps backwards towards the edge of the branch, until eventually falling backwards off it to plummet twenty metres to the ground below. He landed with a heavy crunch before he blacked out.

* * *

**Routeside elsewhere.**

Laura had had a blessing of a pleasant night of uninterrupted sleep. She stretched and yawned as she uncurled from under the cover of the tent, and rolled up the doorway to see Martin leaned against the bottom of the trunk of a nearby tree, still coated in mud. She flew over to him slowly, and tried to gently nudge him awake.

"Whuzza… SNORES…get that frog outta my home… Snore…"

Clearly he was still asleep. She flew up a nearby tree, and picked some apples. She tried eating one of them whilst holding the several others, but accidentally dropped one. It landed straight onto Martins's head, instantly waking him up.

"WAAAAGH! GET OUT OF THERE YOU STUPID…Oh, morning Laura." He said when he noticed her above him. She had paled completely when he had started yelling gibberish, and was still in shock when he took the apple that landed on him and ate it in one gulp.

"Always wanted to be able to do that!" He said grinning, "Hey, don't we have somewhere to get to today?"

She shook her head to dislodge the effect, and nodded.

"Make up your mind, crazy girl." He yelled up at her. This had the unfortunate effect of causing her to fall out of the tree and land on him.

"Yes, we want to get to a town so we can find you a new place to live."

Martin didn't hear a word she said. He was stuggling to breath underneath her, and was flailing frantically. His head eventually poked out from under her, and he gasped sharply.

"Ow... Off...Heavy... Pain...Not... Good!" He squeaked incoherantly. She moved to one side to let him get up, and he stretched his limbs.

"God, you're heavy. Well, the nearest major city is Idrinal, which is about an hours walk away. If you look that way, you will see it on the horizon."

Laura looked over in the direction he pointed, and saw a large cluster of spire-like buildings. She transformed back into her human form, and started walking.

"Yo, Laura, wait up. We've still got to pack up the apples. We can't waste good food."

She tried to talk, but no sound came out. This time Martin noticed.

"What? Can't you talk as a human?" He asked her. This could be a major setback.

She shook her head. That was a no, so she couldn't talk.

"DAMN IT!" He swore loudly. Laura looked offended at his language, but remained silent.

"Okay, it's a good job we're not too far from Lutran Port. They have an enunciation class there that doesn't ask too many questions. Usually they just get illegal immigrants looking to learn the language. So… the way to Lutran is… that way." He said, pointing over to a much smaller cluster of buildings. She began to walk off again.

"Hey Laura, learning how to use your voice is important, so it'll be better to turn back into your usual form and fly us both there."

She growled as she transformed back.

"I'm not a beast of burden. If it's so important, why not run?" She said, and taking off immediately towards the town. Martin screamed desperately behind her.

"BECAUSE I'VE ONLY GOT LITTLE LEGS! WAIT FOR ME!!!"

She smiled at his crazy antics before spinning around in the air. She rushed back to him, and picked him up under the arms, before flapping eagerly back into the air. He screamed as she soared through the air straight towards the port town of Lutran.

It only took them about ten minutes flight before they reached the port, but the second she landed, Martin hobbled over towards the grassy verge at the side of the road, and vomited into it. Laura could hear some small creatures complaining, and wasn't surprised to see that when Martin turned around, there was a Ratatta clinging to his nose by his teeth. She laughed as Martin rolled his eyes.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm in pain. So if you could just... GET THIS DAMN RAT OFF ME!" He yelled, flailing his arms around wildly. She rushed after him, trying to catch the Ratatta's tail to pull it off his face. He was flailing around so wildly though, that she couldn't reach it.

"Pokeball! Go in the backpack as a human and take out a pokeball. Throw it at the Ratatta!"

She quickly transformed and rummaged through the backpack. It was in a little pouch next to the opening, and she pulled it out. She threw the tiny ball at the Ratatta, but it bounced off. She didn't know what was happening until a small green haired youngster emerged from the bush behind Martin.

"Hey! What are you doing?! That's my Ratatta!" He yelled at her. She pointed frantically at Martin, and for the first time, he noticed that it was biting him.

"Ooof! Sorry! Didn't notice." He said, pulling out a Pokeball, and returning the Ratatta. "You should have said."

Martin was clutching his nose sorely, and was moaning slightly. He hobbled up to the trainer and punched him squarely in the knee. The small boy fell over onto his back and looked at the Mudfish Pokemon. It was throwing globs of mud at his face and he raised an arm to shield himself from the projectiles.

"There are laws against Pokemon doing that you know. I could get that thing put down for that!" He yelled at her. She looked angry, and was about to give him a piece of her mind herself for even suggesting it. Fortunately, Martin was able to hold her back when he stopped hurling mud.

"Hey, Laura. Ignore the runt. He's not worth it. I know." He said cautioningly. The boy looked at Martin briefly, and scowled at him.

She scowled at the boy back, before turning away from him and walking into the main city. If that was what the locals were like, she didn't want to be here longer than absolutely necessary.

"Man, what's her problem?" He said to himself. He decided it wouldn't hurt to follow her, and began to run after her, lagging behind just enough so he wouldn't be spotted. He moved into the shrubbery along the roadside and he weaved through the undergrowth after her, little more than a small navy blur.

She jostled her way through the crowds in the town centre, pushing past busy market stalls behind Martin as they tried to make their way to a PokeCentre. There wasn't really anything that caught her eye, despite the numerous stall owners trying to get her to buy their wares. So far she had been offered three rugs, a small crate of vodka, and once simply a shaking box that the owner was too scared to say anything about, although judging by the fact he only had a large chunk missing from one arm, it was probably safer not to ask.

But then she saw something that looked a little too out of place. Sitting in a side street from the market plaza was a tall man in a fine black suit selling silver jewellery. She was confused as all the other market stalls seemed to be run by people who wore little more than rags, so what was this aristocrat doing here. Intrigued, she wandered over to the stall. The man watched her carefully as she approached; adjusting a monocle perched over his left eye with growing interest.

"Err... Hello miss, what can I do you for... I mean, what can I do you for... I mean," He coughed several times to clear his throat, "What can I do for you?" He eventually asked in a polite manner, slowly enunciating each word. She looked at the man's smile and smiled slightly back, before she looked back down at the stall. Her eyes wandered over it for a few seconds, before she gasped. There, sat on a little purple cushion, was a silver pendant that looked sort of like a Latias, except it was a bit out of proportion. She picked it up by its chain, and looked at it from all angles. She noticed various other differences quite quickly; the ears were tufts were longer, and the creatures legs were attached directly to the main section of the body rather than sitting on the sides of a dome on the back, which was also absent. The man coughed to get her attention again.

"I see you are interested in the Latios necklace. If you want it, please come around here." He said, extending his hand around his stall.

"Don't do it. This guy doesn't look like the sort of person who'd just let you walk away with something like that. He's up to something." Martin said from under the stall. Laura looked at him briefly, but decided to ignore him. The pendant was so pretty, even if it was misshapen and he'd got the species name wrong. She smiled sweetly, and took his hand. The man smirked, tightening his grip on her hand, and led her away from the main stall, out of sight of everyone else. She could see a malevolant glint in his eye, and realsied that Martin was right. This man wasn't someone you'd want to meet in a dark alley, despite that was where he was now leading her. She became afraid and tried to pull back, but he just held her tighter and dragged her away faster. She tried to scream but no sound came out, so she resorted to hitting him with her free hand. Martin suddenly noticed exactly what the man was doing. Laura's mimic of the pop-princess Lantadyme had got her into trouble.

"HEY! ASSHOLE! YOU GET OFF HER NOW!!!" Martin yelled as he tried to attack the human with a headbutt to the crotch, but the man just kicked him away under his stall, and continued to try to pull her away from it. She looked down briefly at Martin in horror before seeing something purple flash by. The man howled in pain and released her hand, clawing at something on his face. Another hand grabbed her and she turned around to see who it was. The boy with the green hair was inches away from her, and she recoiled slightly in shock. There was an edge of fear in his eyes as he glanced back at the Ratatta that was still maiming the man's face, before looking back at Laura.

"Come with me. You're not safe here." He said taking her hand, before he spun around on his heel and pulled her away from the man still howling behind them. She grabbed Martin by the arm as the boy took off with her, dragging him along too. The green haired boy pulled her along through the port faster than humanely possible, but at least it got them away from the man. Laura was practically being dragged through the air horizontally by the force, and she smiled slightly at how similar the sensation was to actually flying. Martin wasn't as comfortable with the new position though obviously.

"ARGH! I TOLD YOU I'M NOT GOOD WITH FLYING! PUT ME DOWN, PUT ME DOWN!" He screamed loudly, although to most onlookers, it would just sound like a series of terrified yelps. The boy laughed slightly.

"I don't care if you've got trouble flying." The boy dragging them said. Laura looked back up at him, and would have screamed. The boy's hair had turned red, resembling fire more than actual hair, and although she didn't notice it, his clothes seemed to have darkened considerably and turned into a fur like substance. Of course, the speed they were travelling at made it impossible to focus on him clearly. He turned sharply through a back alley off into another side street, weaving through and under stalls, occasionally tipping them over. Laura winced expecting to feel pain from the falling merchandise, but the boy was racing too fast to be seen by the naked eye anymore, let alone hit by falling debris. She looked back at Martin and laughed as his cheeks had ballooned out from the airflow, revealing his gums. They practically flew around another corner, and she noticed that the boy hit his chest. A dumpster at the far end of the road tipped over to one side, revealing a very long tunnel sloping down into what appeared to be the side of the PokeMart. He dashed down it with them in a blink of an eye, hitting the button again to make the dumpster return to its original position. From the outside, it just looked at though they had vanished into thin air.

The tunnel they were in was dimly lit on each side by small electric light brackets next to the ceiling. The boy stopped suddenly, causing Laura and Martin to fly over his shoulder onto the floor. He bent over clutching his knees and wheezing to recover his breath. Laura got up from the floor where she and Martin had landed and nursed over her arms. They were sore from the impact, but there was no obvious damage. Martin groaned and sat up in a daze rocking slightly, having taken the impact mostly on his head. Laura suddenly noticed that her other hand was still clenched tightly around something, and she opened it. She gasped again as she realised that she was still holding the now stolen Amulet. She turned around, but a hand grabbed her arm gently to hold her back. She looked back to see a look of resentful sadness on the boy's face.

"It's no use returning that Latios Amulet. That pervert is dead," He said slowly. "I would say sorry, but I'm not. He had to die. You saw what he tried to do to you. We've been trying to bring him down for ages for his crimes against young girls. Its just that before we couldn't call it an act of defense."

Laura looked back at her feet shocked. Did that make her responsible for the mans death? Martin coughed loudly from next to them, drawing their attention.

"Laura. You heard what he said. If he wasn't killed then, he could have gone on to erm... attack even more young girls. Surely the death of one is worth the lives of many?" Martin said. The boy laughed.

"Since when have you had a philosophical side Martin?"

"And since when have you called me by my name, rather than 'that thieving rat from Razor'?" Martin yelled back testily. The boy smirked slightly, and began to walk down the corridor towards a steel vault door in the far end of the corridor.

"Since you stopped being a pain in the arse." He replied, beckoning Laura and Martin to follow. Laura ran up alongside him, and looked at his face. He was wearing a confidant smirk, and something else in his eyes. There was some kind of fire burning there. He stopped suddenly, and Laura crashed into the doors in front of where he stopped. She rubbed her face slightly as it stung, and the boy smirked at her antics. He pulled a key-ring out on a chain attached to his belt, and picked out a very large key with eight sets of teeth radiating from the spoke like a bicycle wheel.

"It's not often we get to wow people," he said, twisting the key in the lock. A metal plate uncovered itself in the floor, raising a series of various identification devices, "We usually don't allow visitors and business rivals," He put his hand on a scanner and his eye against another, "But you helped us terminate a long time threat, so we've made an exception for now." Two lights blinked green, and the instruments retracted back into the floor. Sixteen pistons simultaneously retracted inside the bulkhead, pivoting the portal open to reveal a second door. It was much simpler double door. "But anyway," He wrapped his hands around the handles of the door, looking back at the pair. Martin was still fuming silently, and Laura was still staring at the vault door behind them. He clicked his fingers to get her attention again. Martin hit breaking point.

"ANSWER MY QUESTIONS DAMNIT!" Martin yelled at the boy. The boy sighed as the vault door closed behind them, refusing to lose his temper.

"Still as impatient as old times. Anyway. Welcome..." He threw the doors open wide to reveal the immense room inside, earning a silent gasp from Laura, and a gob smacked look from Martin, "To the Kids Grid: Kraith Detachment."

* * *


	4. The Human Factor, Part 2: Evening

Usual Warnings and Disclaimers apply.

**# # # Chapter Specific notes # # #**

_Italics are Kenai using telepathy._

- - - is a sub-separator.

In Ganon's section, the time is 00:00 to about 2:15 in the morning after last chapter, and in Laura's section, it's about 20:00 to 23:30, then Martin messes around for three hours breaking complicated things, making the last section 2:30 to 2:45 in the morning. Phew. Just another note in case it's been forgotton, this is taking place in late January.

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Human Factor (Part 2: Evening)**

**Cemusem Forest (Unconcious):**

Ganon couldn't help it, his natural curiosity was too strong.

The next morning he flew back to the hidden section of the wall, settling down in the bushes to watch it carefully. He slowly crept towards it, crawling along the ground as though any sudden movements would cause it to attack him. He gingerly touched a section of it with the back of his claw, retracting it the second he touched it. Nothing happened. He touched it again, holding it there for an entire three seconds before he became too scared to leave it there. He panted loudly as though he'd just flown a marathon. That was terrifying.

"Why are you panting over there?" The girl's voice on the other side asked. He screamed, as did the voice on the other side. They both stopped abruptly and he looked back at the wall confused. Whoever was on the other side was as scared of him as he was of her.

"Who's there?" He eventually managed to build up the courage to ask. There was a long pause before he got any response.

"I don't think I'm allowed to say." She said, "The rules here are very strict."

"Well, that's the reason why I come out to these bushes here, to be free of the rules and restrictions of the main building." He said back, curling up alongside the wall to hear the voice better.

"What? There's trees and shrubs at your side there too?" She asked, seemingly fascinated.

"What the? Yes..." He answered slowly, thinking it may be a trick question. He heard some claws clap together once and a strange sort of laugh and a sigh. He felt a strange tingle flow through him as he heard her. It was a nice laugh that gave him a warm, fuzzy feeling.

"Is there a Bluk Berry tree just in front of you to the left?" She asked, apparently overjoyed. He looked over in that direction, and he looked at it.

"It's more of a bush really, but yes, why?" She laughed again almost ecstatically, and Ganon couldn't help smiling.

"That means your side is practically a mirror of my side! Ooooh! How fascinating!" She said. Ganon smiled broadly, and could tell that she was smiling too.

"You have a pretty voice." He said absently, before he mentally slapped himself. He heard a giggle from the other side, and relaxed again. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to say.

"Aww, that's sweet!" She answered, "I think I like you." She said, giggling girlishly. Ganon smiled again. He had made his first friend.

- - - - - - - - -

Ganon was slowly coming around from the fall. He could tell he had been out for several hours because night had fallen. He opened his eyes, and immediately saw Mildred looking back at him. He backed away quickly and hit his head on a tree.

"The human child is awake, Lomar." She cawed. Ganon just looked at her in shock. Did she just say…?

He looked around him and saw no-one else. He looked the other way, and could tell that they were talking about him. He pointed at himself with a confused look on his face.

"He doesn't think we're talking about him. Bless his stupid thick head." She said in a mock motherly tone. Ganon scowled at her immediately and swiped at her, instantly making her flap back out of reach. She settled down next to Lomar, and for the first time, Ganon noticed that he was only stood on one foot. His other claw seemed to be holding something in front of him, and was glowing red slightly. Ganon peered around to try and see it, but Mildred moved to block his view.

"Oh look, now the brat thinks he can take us on..." She said, lunging forwards with her beak, aiming for his face. He yelped and threw his hand in front of him, causing her to miss and draw blood from the back of his hand. He winced but remained silent as he looked at the blood pouring from his hand. It looked worse than it was, but it was still _extremely_ painful. He stood up in front of them, and turned back into his Latios form, earning a scream from Mildred.

"What do you mean my stupid thick head?" He demanded, eyes glowing with power. He didn't notice it from his rage fuelled stupor, but his entire body was shaking from anger.

"Erk! Sorry, we thought you were some nosey human child after our stash." She said, shielding her face from him.

"Stash?"

"It means the contents of the nest." Lomar added hastily, putting down the rock he had been holding. It was glowing. Ganon was still too young to know that Lomar was avoiding something.

"Oh. Lomar, why was that rock glowing red?"

"What? Oh, you've noticed my ability. Very well." He said whilst taking a few steps back. He held his head up into the air, and belched a stream of flame into the air. Ganon hovered back slightly. Even he knew that it was very strange for such a little bird to make quite a big fireball.

"How do you do that?!"

"I was born with it." He lied.

Ganon looked around at Mildred, who just shook her head.

"It used to be a problem. He would snore. I once woke up with half my tail feathers burnt off, and I was grounded for months."

"You weren't grounded, you just wanted me to wait on you wing and claw." Lomar said chuckling.

"Oh be quiet you!" She said, slapping him playfully with her wing.

Ganon watched them play-battling for a while with sadness. He was still tormented by the loss of his only love in the Nursery. They may never have actually met face to face, but they each knew they loved the other.

He sighed sadly, immersing himself in memories of that beautiful voice. The Swellows looked back at him with curiosity.

"What did you say laddy?" Lomar asked, shaking Ganon from his trance. He blinked at them, before realising that they were talking to him.

"Nothing. I just remembered you said something about me needing to practice being a human. I've picked a form, so what should I do now?"

"You've picked a form? Show us!" Mildred said.

"But you've already seen it!"

"We were more interested in burning it before than paying attenion to details."

"Oh alright then…" He said. He glowed blue again, and stood before them was the human child again. They circled him, scrutinising the guise from every angle.

"Hmmm... slight plasticine texture to the fabric..." Mildred mused, noticing an innappropriate sheen to the clothes, as though they were made of wax.

Ganon tried to make a witty retort, about how their own feathers looked like wax to him, but making intelligable sounds with a foreign set of vocal chords proved difficult, rendering him practically mute.

"What's the matter laddy, Skitty got your tongue?" Lomar asked, raising an eyebrow... well... feather above his eye. Ganon simply nodded, causing Mildred to tilt her head.

"But couldn't Teal use-" She began, but Lomar quickly flicked out a wing, muffling her speech.

"So you can't talk at all... Okay. In that case then, we've done all we can." Lomar said as he flapped a few feet into the air. For some reason, Ganon felt very apprehensive all of a sudden.

"Now hold still and this won't hurt too much."

He opened his mouth and coated Ganon in flame. It blackened the entire outfit, before he used gust to put out the remaining flames where the material had caught. Ganon's face was now covered in soot, and his clothes were beyond natural repair. He looked annoyed at the pair, but they weren't done yet. Lomar dashed in, and slashed the shirt and trousers with long gashes. Ganon could feel blood coming from the wounds to his body, and was shocked as Mildred suddenly flew in front of him. She crashed repeatedly into a tree, and then used Endeavour on him. He felt himself faint as the attack left him immobile. The Swellows gazed at their handiwork.

"He certainly looks bedraggled enough to pass for a feral child doesn't he?" Lomar asked.

"Yeah… He…certainly does." Mildred panted between breaths. She was going to have to rest for quite a while.

"Milly, do yourself a favour and eat a herb. Then we'll go to the village and get him settled into the PokeCentre."

"Ok…"She said as she flew back up to the nest. A few seconds later, she flew back down in a drunken line, and took one of the human's hands in her claws, and began to drag it. Lomar took the other hand, and dragged it towards the village with her, with Ganon pulled limply behind them.

They dragged him into the heart of the sleeping town, moving through the streets past the outskirts to the opposite end of the village. A few hundred metres from the last several houses which were considered the towns border, a lone building sat there, with the Pokemon Centre logo plastered above its doorway. However, there were a myriad of unique traits to this particular establishment. Whilst virtually every other centre on the planet was staffed by at least one nurse Joy, if one came within five miles of this one they'd be chased out immediately. The same went for any other official from the regular branches without invitation.

As they approached the doorway, it opened with a customary ding. They dragged the body inside, and jumped on the bell on the desk repeatedly. They could hear someone mumbling angrily from the backroom, and they saw a large brown humanoid Pokemon putting a lab coat on as it entered the main room. It yawned loudly, before it started talking.

"Welcome to the PokeCentre, how may I… oh cut the crap you two, you're late? It's two in the morning if you haven't noticed." The Alakazam grumbled angrily.

"Your equations were right again, Kenai. This Latios came through. We ran all the tests, and we'll put a skills report together for tomorrow." Lomar said, leaning forwards on the desk, "Just out of priority though, he can't use vocal or telepathic means of communication as a human though."

"Oh I'm fed up of getting Eons with complications attached..." Kenai muttered, "Why can't we just get normal ones from portals..."

"Just bad luck."

"That was a rheatorical question. Anyway, vocal is easier to get from scratch, so I'll get Edward and Clair to teach him." Kenai said, pulling up a chair knowing this was going to take a while. Lomar gawped at him.

"You're introducing him to humans?!" He asked incredulously. Kenai glared evilly at the bird, hating everyone not being able to comprehend to magnitude of his genius. Even among Alakazam, he could be considered gifted.

"I don't have many field agents that can put on a human guise and maintain it without being rumbled within hours. Eons have the capacity to emulate appearance perfectly, however other traits take a while to learn. Mimicing a humans appearance is one thing. To pass him off as a human, he's going to need to learn about human social customs, laws, physiology… you name it, he's got to learn it. When in rome, do as the romans do, otherwise you get fed to the lions."

"I see..." Lomar lied.

"Ergo, use a human to teach him how to be human." Kenai responded, standing up.

"And how do you intend to get Eddie to co-operate?"

"Easy." Kenai said, before wandering back into the backroom. A flash of purple light burst from the door, and a male human screamed and leapt through the doorway. He was middle-aged, but his hair was already streaked heavy with grey, no doubt due to the number of Psychic wake-up calls he'd received in the past. He was wearing a white nightcap, and a white dressing gown. He looked at the boy on the floor, and looked over to Alakazam.

"What does he want?" The human said groggily.

_This boy is a feral child that these Swellows have brought in, Eddie. He appears to have been caught up in a fight with a member of the Char family, probably a Charizard judging by the depth of the wounds. He can not speak any intelligible words, but his mind is sharp. I suggest we take him in and raise him alongside your own child. _Kenai told the human through psychic.

"A feral child? Are you sure? We'll need to scan him for any diseases first."

_Already taken care of. The boy is clean._

"Are you sure." The man said, still too tired to think straight. Kenai just looked at him evilly.

_Sure?! My IQ is 7,680, and you ask if I'm sure?! _The man winced, woken up by the ferocity of the Pokemon.

"Sorry, I forget that you're…"

_An unparalled genius, and a psychic that can anticipate every single word that you say. Yes pretty much. But what is the decision on the child. Until you actually decide though, I can't read it from your mind._

The man looked up and down Ganon's unconscious form once or twice, lifting his face up and looking at the eye under the eyelid. Lomar held his breath, knowing exactly what he'd find.

"He has red eyes. That's a bit freaky, but not really too bad. Yeah, he looks in saveable condition. We'll look after him won't we Kenai?"

_Yes._

The Swellows sighed audibly. Eddie suddenly seemed to notice them for the first time.

"What are these two doing here?"

_I told you. These are the Swellows that brought him here._

"A feral child raised by Swellows? Well..." He inspected the two birds carefully, "Why'd they bring him in?"

Privately, Kenai thought 'Because I'm paying them to' but to Eddie he simply said _They wanted to be nice._

"Oh... umm..."

_You were going to check some guest dates in the files. _Kenai said, pushing the human's conciousness into making him leave. Edward promptly wandered back into the backroom, leaving Kenai free to resume talking to the Swellows.

"Human minds are so easy to manipulate, especially if they're still asleep. Sometimes I think Abras are more active than this guy." He said, looking back through the doorway at his human to catch him trying to stifle a yawn. He continued to rifle through some notebooks. Kenai continued.

"And you're jobs done now. I'll wire the money over this afternoon."

Eddie wandered back out of the room, and put the notepad on the desk. Kenai raised a bushy eyebrow at Edward being so quick about shaking off the control despite being asleep.

"I forgot to ask. What's his name anyway?"

_Ganon._

"Ganon? Strange name. Anyway. He will be up on the top floor in the residential area. Normally it's a family guest bedroom, but ever since my wife passed away, the rest of the family rarely visits."

Both Swellows bowed their heads in reverence. Kenai mused that their acting had indeed got better since last time.

_They say they are sorry for your loss._

"Yeah, well, it's not too big a deal. Grief is more detrimental than any other emotion." He said, trying to stifle another yawn. "Anyway, better go back to sleep. Big day tomorrow with that group coming in."

Lomar looked at Kenai incredulously, as Eddie walked back into the back room and fell asleep again in seconds.

"You _told _him about it?!" He squawked at Kenai.

"No! I just said it was mating season, and they would need a place to stay." He said glancing back at Lomar as he turned off the healing machine for the night.

"He would never have agreed to that. He'd think he'd be kept awake all night."

"I'll admit it did take a long time to convince him. Don't forget though, that if it works, it'll be worth it."

"If... Don't forget it's a very big if. This is the seventh we've tried with that damn machine and it's got us nowhere. It's costing us too much. We've already lost favour with the Grid."

"Lomar... Don't argue with the boss if you value your salary. Maybe not next time, maybe not the time after, but it will work eventually. All I need to do is look at the schematics again. Unfortunately, Martin had them when he left on his field mission. Until then, help me take the Latios upstairs. We need to make sure he settles down well. I'm also needed downstairs soon, I'm on the night shift."

"Fine, fine. Come on Milly."

They eventually managed to get Ganon onto a hospital trolley, and Kenai piloted it to one of several lifts. He tapped to fifth floor button, and the lift began to rise. About a minute later, they were up in a dark corridor lit only by the starlight from the window. It was a clear night sky outside, and a few Noctowls were returning to their own nests after a good nights hunting, even though it would be about six hours until sunrise.

"Okay. This is his new room. I'll bring him some new clothes up tomorrow."

"He doesn't need new clothes."

"Like I said, I'll bring up some new clothes tomorrow. Eddie would be suspicious if he saw Ganon wearing some different clothes when you so obviously didn't bring any with you."

"Ah, we were wrong to doubt you Kenai."

"I'm a genius. Don't forget, but knowing you, you will anyway."

"Idiot..." Mildred mumbled under her breath at Kenai.

"Exactly."

* * *

The subterranean vault was _immense_. Complicated machines of various sizes and shapes were perched around the lower side edges of the room overlooked by a balcony, each with cables leading towards a towering monolith of hard drives and CPUs in the centre. The floor space in between was subdivided into multiple cubicles, each with at least two people in each poring over intriguing mechanical devices. The entire opposite wall was covered in plasma screens depicting world maps, weather patterns, a series of totally unintelligible graphs, and even a diagram of the entire solar system. This place was very high-budget. Martins face was absolutely livid as he looked down.

"Well then. Follow me closely you two." The boy said, leading them towards a pulpit on the edge of the balcony they'd entered on. He grasped the edges of the lectern, and leant forwards towards a microphone. Martin and Laura clasped their hands over their ears as the feedback whistled as the boy spoke.

"Testing, testing. Okay... Members of the Grid. I have returned from the recon mission, and I am proud to report that Pierre Noirisse has now been eliminated. Girls may now wander the streets in safety." He said, his confident grin widening even further as the girls below all whooped loudly below them, some even turning around in their cubicles and hugging each other. Laura puzzled over their behaviour, until Martin once again brought her attention back where it belonged.

"Geraint, you're being a show-off." Martin asked the boy through gritted teeth. The boy looked back and nodded once, before turning back to the microphone. Laura looked back at Martin to see a vein pulsing in his temple. They clasped their hands over their ears again from the feedback.

"The girl you have to thank for his termination is Laura here. I therefore make her an honorary member of the Kids Grid. " He said, offering her a hand. She blushed and accepted it, stepping up to the podium next to him. He held her hand above their heads theatrically, much to Martins severe annoyance.

"Welcome Laura, to the Kids Grid!" He shouted.

"To the Kids Grid. Welcome!" The chorus echoed back from the crowd. A few people cheered and clapped their hands as well. However one small girl at the back was hanging her head slightly and walking away from the commotion towards a doorway set in the back of the room. Just by her pose Laura could tell she was crying. Laura looked back at the boy next to her quizzically, but noticed that he wasn't looking at the crowd below, just that one girl, a look of sorrow on his own face that no doubt mirrored the girls own. He looked back across to Laura and put his hand over the microphone.

"Don't ask. Long story." was all he said before taking his hand off the microphone and holding his hand in the air for silence. He leant back into the microphone, earning another piercing bout of feedback.

"And the sound technicians for this microphone are fired. That's everything. Back to work people."

After a bout of laughter everyone returned to their relevant posts, continuing their various projects. The boy turned back to Martin, who was leering menacingly at him.

"Kids Grid," He said, spitting the word out as though it was poison, "You never asked for my permission for Laura to become a member."

"And why should I have? She appears perfectly capable of making her own mind up."

"And she can, but she's mute. Did you not think it weird that she has not yet said a single word? The sole reason why we came to this infernal port was to put her in the vocal training class. Now you just swan up and trap her in this place without question. On that basis, you could have hired me." Martin said, scowling all the time. The boy looked around briefly, before gesturing for them to follow him. He turned on his heel, and led them around the balcony, behind partitions screening them from view of the main hall.

"I'm afraid that your presence here Martin is not going to be taken kindly, considering you work for Razor. But I trust you both considering your service to us, so I will answer your questions. The answers however, are very sensitive, so I am taking you to the most private place, my room. Follow quickly and quietly. If Laura has your Pokeball, then it would be better for you to travel in that whilst you are here." The boy said. Martin rolled his eyes, but followed regardless.

"You know full well that it is company policy for employees to remain outside of a Pokeball."

"Whatever. Just come on quickly and quietly."

The boy led them along the edge to the east side, and up a spiral stairway towards the residential department. It was nowhere near as obviously scientific as the main floor; it even had a table with a vase of flowers on it at one end of the corridor. He stopped at the far end of the corridor, and took out another key from his belt. He unlocked a sheet steel door, and held it open.

"In here." He said, as he ushered them in. He looked back down the corridor to check that no-one was following, before snapping his left hand out almost carelessly, eliciting a gasp of pain from the air. He curled his fingers around the invisible object, and pulled it away, revealing a small pink haired boy. It cowered in fear and ran off.

"Stupid boy... I've told him not to take that out of the lab." He mumbled absently as he shut the door behind him. He locked the door, and strode into his room, sitting down on the edge of his bed. He ruffled his hand through his hair once, before turning back to Laura and Martin who had sat down besides his table.

"Okay then. We may talk freely here. This is the most secure room, espionage-wise, due to my condition. As Martin knows already, my name is Geraint. The condition of which I speak is this." He said, standing up. Martin looked at him expectantly, and Laura looked at him with a mild look of confusion, which seemed to have been permanently fixed on her face since she'd arrived. Geraint looked to each of them in turn, before bowing his head down. His hair flared red again, but this time, when his skin seemed to darken it was much more observable. It was turning into black fur on his and back and forehead, whilst his front and arms turned a light tan colour. He grew in size slightly until he was five foot seven, and then looked back up at the pair, his red hair moving to the back of his neck and literally becoming flames. Laura gasped silently as she looked at the Typhlosion in front of her. For some reason she felt a burst of attraction towards him as he shimmied out of the clothes that were now slightly too small for him. He tossed the translator over to her, and she fumbled catching it, too preoccupied with his body. He made motions for her to put it around her neck, before Martin shook his head. He didn't seem phased at all by his transformation.

"She can already understand the Pokemon Language. She doesn't need your translator." Martin said coldly, taking the device out of her hands, shooting it another piercing look as he put it down as roughly as possible. Geraint looked slightly bemused by this answer and reclined on the bed again, unaware of how saucy it would look to a female Pokemon. Laura looked at the floor in slight embarrassment.

"Well, that's a handy skill. Where did she get it? No, that would be prying. Anyway, now to answer your questions. I did not know she was mute, I believed it was shock from seeing that mans death. We offered her a place without question because she helped us to condemn that terrible man. We never offered you that position because you are a Pokemon." Geraint said coolly, oblivious to Laura's obvious discomfort as she was now fidgeting with her hands in her lap.

"Specieist bastard." Martin mumbled under his breath. Geraint looked back up at him with anger flaring in his eyes. It was obvious to Laura already that sparks flew whenever these two met.

"Well, that and you worked for Razor. During the time since you left, we were forced to withdraw our support from their cloning program. They have tried seven times to date to no avail, with another demonstration scheduled in one week. They were outraged and we no longer meet eye to eye on anything. In fact, we are currently in the middle of a major arms race. They have sent spies over several times, trying to steal secrets for our latest batches of devices."

"Well if your group has a problem with Pokemon, how come you're their leader?" Martin said. Laura nodded, agreeing with his point.

"Simple. They don't know. I was one of the most secret experiments; namely allowing humans to use Pokemon abilities. I was the eighth and one of five that managed to survive. Out of those, I'm the only one besides Carosso that came out sane. When we realised that the human form couldn't support Pokemon abilities without this side-effect, we had to call off the research. The process was irreversible, and therefore I am now able to take on the forms of either my natural human form, or the Typhlosion form I gained from the experiments. This is also the reason," He turned to face Laura again, "Why it wouldn't work between me and that girl you saw during your initiation. She was my girlfriend before the experiment, but she doesn't know about my condition. I still love her, and she still loves me, but it just can't work. I've lost my humanity." He said, bowing his head sadly at the end. Laura looked back down at the floor too, she had never heard such a tragic tale of romance before. Well, she hadn't heard of romance before anyway, besides herself and that boy on the other side of the wall, but her instincts told her that what had happened to him was unfair, and she couldn't help crying slightly.

Martin just bawled sarcastically, cupping his hands around his face in an almost offensive manner. She looked over at him and scowled.

"Oh, boo hoo. Get over it lover boy. You're just doing this so you get the sympathy vote from Laura so she'll do what you ask. It won't work. Laura, turn back to your natural form." Martin said, turning totally towards Laura. Geraint stopped crying suddenly, and looked up with confusion. On his Pokemon face it was almost cute. She fidgeted with her hands again, before Martin coughed twice. She looked back over at Geraint, who was staring eagerly, before enveloping herself in blue light. Geraint gasped as she turned back into a Latias. He leapt three feet off the bed, landing on it again with a thump.

"A Pokemon?! All this time she was a Pokemon?! Oh my god! I'm naked in front of a girl! Argh!" He screamed before trying to curl up on his bed again to hide himself as best as possible, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Martin, what's his problem?" She asked, as Geraint continued to hide in his bed. Martin tutted.

"Humans have a different morality system to most Pokemon. Humans do not have long fur like most Pokemon, therefore their... erm... you know whats... would always be on show. Whilst there are some strange people that do not seem phased by this, a majority of humans wear clothing to hide their embarrassment. Usually, Geraint doesn't have a problem with being in his Pokemon form around males and humans, because they usually have no interest in such things. Being female and a Pokemon means that he's very awkward around you, and will feel un-naturally attracted to you." Martin said expertly. Laura looked back over at Geraint, who squeaked again and hid even further into the sheets.

"No I'm not!" He yelled out quickly, before ducking his head back.

"Whatever. So. How are we going to deal with this?" He asked the Typhlosion, who seemed to have found it easier now to stay still and just have his head poking out from the covers.

"Well, to counter the human muteness, she'll have to have lessons with me..."

"Because you fancy her."

"Yes, because I... No!" He yelled back at Martin, glancing at Laura who was next to him. She was laughing at his stupid antics.

"Well, as a hybrid, I know how to approach the exercise from a Pokemon's point of view."

"And why she couldn't do that with your other spy Carosso?"

"Well he's always out. Being a hybrid, he can integrate with Razor better than any other agent." He said calmly. Martin was glowering at him even more, but Geraint gave it no notice.

"Anyway, as for boarding arrangements, you can have the room next to mine," He said, "It was built for privacy just as this one was; it was just easier to build them into the same section. As for the lessons, how about each night at eleven o'clock?"

"You're just saying that because it was voted the most romantic time." Martin said, scowling at him again. Geraint's blushed.

"Err, no... It's because it's company policy for workers to stop at 10:30, which is about now. So the lesson would be in half an hour in here. I'll spare you the trouble tonight so you can get settled in. We'll also have to get you a starter Pokemon as your battle partner. But we'll sort that out tomorrow. For now, we'd better get you set up in your new room before other people start coming back up here to rest." He got up and picked up his clothes, before strolling into the bathroom. Laura looked back at Martin, who just shrugged his shoulders, and looked back at the device on the desk. He grasped it firmly and pulled the two sections of casing apart. He tilted it to look inside it more thouroughly, and started poking at sections of it.

"Well, this sucks." He said after a minute of taking it apart.

"What does?" She asked, flying over to see the inside of the device.

"This. They've tried reverse engineering our technology, and made a complete hash of it. I mean, oh my god," He said, pulling out a particularly large section of circuit board out, "They haven't even bothered to remove our emblem from it! Talk about cheap-skates." He winced as he heard the bathroom door lock click as it was opened again. Laura immediately transformed back into her human form, putting the Latios amulet around her neck. Geraint stepped out just as Laura was adjusting her hair. He smiled appreciatively, before he looked down at Martin, who still had the mangled device in his hands. He groaned and walked up to Laura, tapping her on the shoulder.

"Okay, I'll take you to your room." He said, as he walked over to the doorway, "Martin, you'll have to sleep in the same room as Laura." He said, turning his head to glance over his shoulder. He saw Martin shrug, and unlocked the door. He looked around outside briefly, and punched the air in front of him again. A short grunt and a thump on the ground told him he'd hit the pink haired kid again. He scowled, and took the shielding device off him again. He walked the five metres to the next door, and unlocked it, walking in with Laura.

"Here's the key, give me a shout if you need help." He said, and he pushed Martin forcefully into the room after her. Martin was intending to sneak away to perform a little espionage himself.

"Old habits die hard, don't they Martin." He laughed as he closed the door behind them. Martin grumbled slightly and wandered into the room. Laura walked over to the bed and turned into her Pokemon form, curling up of the soft duvet.

"Oh, this is comfortable. I could get used to this." She cooed contentedly. Martin gave her a reprimanding look.

"Then don't. I don't intend for us to be longer than necessary." He grumbled as he sat at the desk, and put his bag down. He pulled out a soldering iron and stand, as well as a strange pair of glasses that had a series of folding lenses on them. He flexed his fingers, and picked up the iron. Laura continued to bounce gently on the bed. The sound of squeaking springs was extremely distracting.

"Laura, can you stop squeaking the bed like that? I'm trying to concentrate." He said, giving her a reprimanding glance. She looked back at him sadly. She was enjoying it, but he was older and it looked as though what he was doing was important.

He concentrated on the device again, stabbing at it mercilessly with a screwdriver when a piece of circuit refused to move. Martin pulled at some more parts of the device, breaking off some loose wires, which he held in his mouth.

"Martin, what are you doing?" She asked, yawning slightly. Martin didn't look up from his work.

"I'm twaking dwis hunk-a junk apwart. I pwactically dewigned it, so I know wha bids do wha." He said awkwardly around the wires. Laura didn't understand a word he said.

"Take the wires out of your mouth."

"Cwan't."

"Why not?" He heard Martin give a muffled sigh, and he turned around to talk to her.

"Cos I'm hwoldin dem dare. If I dwop dem, I cwan't pick em bwack up." he said, indicating that both his hands were busy. Laura rolled her eyes and got up, taking the pieces out of his mouth.

"Well, I said I was taking this hunk of junk apart. I practically designed it, so I know what bits do what. At the minute, I'm making a bug scanner to make sure we're not being watched. Wires please." He said, opening his mouth again. Laura rolled her eyes and put the wires back.

"Thwank yoo." He said around them.

"What?" She asked. He grumbled and moved one of his hands into a thumbs-up. She understood.

She went back to the bed and curled up on it, watching Martin intently. Twice he swore vehemently, and once he'd resorted to slapping it. However about five minutes later, she could hear it whirring into life, and Martin jumped up, doing a little victory dance. He picked up the device, and studied it carefully..

"Absolutely nothing. Oh well, guess I haven't made it sensitive enough."

"Or there aren't any bugs." Laura suggested, yawning a lot more.

"This is the Kids Grid, there's always... Ah ha!" He yelled triumphantly, waking Laura up form her stupor. He ran over to the wardrobe, and pulled it open. He reached an arm in, and revealed a sleeping Caterpie with a tape-recorder fastened to it's head. He grabbed it by the tail, and ran over to the doorway with it. He opened it wide, and booted the hapless insect out.

"AND STAY OUT!!!" He yelled after it for good measure, rubbing his hands together and shutting the door.

"Well, that's the bug sweep complete. Time for the more important part."

"What's that then?" Laura asked. Martin looked at her, almost guilty about what he was about to do.

"Hush now girly, go to sleep. It's not important. Go to sleep." Martin whispered gently, his voice soft and melodic. She couldn't really hear the words as such, more of a light chiming in her mind that made her...(yawn)... ever so... sleepy...

She hit the pillow softly, already dreaming of that strong voice from the other side of the wall, imagining him holding her close, kissing her softly.

Martin stopped looking into her dreams, and remembered what he was supposed to do. He picked up the bug sweeper, taking it apart again. He fitted another lens over his eye, increasing the magnification even further as he manipulated a bundle of fibre optics. He ran the translator module through the radar scope, and attached the satellite feed through the scope. Now he just needed to remember the number.

* * *

Kenai was getting up again, putting on his nightgown again. The phone in his office was ringing, and he was chuntering murderously.

"What sort of idiot rings in the middle of the night... If I ever get my hands on him... Thunder punch his ass from here to Australia."

He looked at the phone screen, and answered it. A Marshtomp's face appeared on the screen. It didn't look anywhere near as tired as he was. He pressed a button under the phone, marked COFFEE.

"You idiot, it's half past two in the morning you absolute dumbass."

"Kenai, just because I've evolved doesn't mean you can call me a dumbass."

"Oh, it's you Martin. No wonder I didn't recognize the number if you've evolved. So you've infiltrated the Kids Grid base."

"How did you know?" Martin asked, his face in shock. He was hoping to make the revelation dramatic, but when you're working with a genius, it's difficult.

"Several reasons. Firstly, you fed the signal through the Telepathic Module, so I can read your mind through it. Secondly, the signal analyser says you are using Kids Grid technology cobbled together by your own hands into the form of a psionic comms set. And thirdly, I can see it on the sign behind you."

Martin looked around, and Kenai smirked as the Mud Fish sweat dropped.

"Okay. Anyway. We're in the Lutran Detachment..."

"Yes, I can read." Kenai said, inspecting his non-existent nails. Martin scowled.

"You're just jealous that I got to retire, and you can't."

"You didn't retire, you were allowed to go home until someone came along that could get you into the Kids Grid. But choosing when you're locked in the middle of an enemy's base is hardly a safe time to start trying to pick faults."

Martin gaped on the screen whilst trying to come up with a witty retort. Eventually, he had to make do with a less than ideal answer.

"Shut up." He said. Kenai laughed at the monitor, and picked up his cup of coffee which had just been delivered.

"Well, what have you got to tell me? I can tell you still have your bag of tricks just by the fact you are talking to me. Which also means you have the schematics I need, several months overdue." Kenai said, before taking a sip. Martin held up some pieces of paper.

"Oh.... crap, I'll scan them now then. Geraint mentioned the demo, so I presume he's intending to infiltrate."

"So we've got them back in the loop. Geraint will be coming personally I trust." Kenai said, leaning forwards to collect some papers that rumbled out of the printer. He analysed them briefly, before nodding.

"Yes." Martin answered. Kenai leant back in his chair resting his fingers together, "You are aware he is a hybrid, alternate form Typhlosion?"

"Yes, I do know that, I have plans in mind for his arrival. We'll keep an eye out for him over here."

"Okay. Martin out." And the phone blacked out again, leaving Kenai alone in his office. He looked over at the schematics again, and looked out through the glass partition of this office, down at a haze of coolant surrounding a large tubular machine below, the interwoven pipes feeding out of it bubbling gently.

* * *

Martin took the device apart again, reverting it to it's original Kid's Grid configuration. He stood up and immediately collapsed, since he hadn't used his legs in the best part of an hour, and they were cramped. He swore quietly, looking back up at Laura, and was relieved that she was still asleep. He took another look into her dreams and wasn't really too surprised to see she was still enraptured with a strange blue and white dragon. She cooed happily and clutched the sheets a little tighter in her sleep.

* * *

Just to clarify, Geraint has lustful feelings for Laura only in his Typhlosion form in winter. The rest of the time, she's just a recruit. It was really difficult to try and word it in the main plot.


	5. WakeUp Call

Another thing I forgot to mention is that this takes place about forty to fifty years before the time of Ash Ketchum, making this the first incarnation of the machine.

# # # Chapter Specific Notes # # #

_Italics are Kenai's Psychic speech._

"Normal speech is pretty obvious."

* * *

**Chapter Five: Wake-up Call**

Ganon rolled over in his sleep, still deep in his dreams. It was another one of her.

"What's your name?" She asked from the other side of the wall.

"Why do you want to know?" He asked back, still slightly apprehensive about revealing something could identify him. Technically he was breaking rules just by even being here. If the tutors knew that he had contact with the other side of the wall, they'd lock him up for goodness knows how long.

"What's your problem?" She asked sullenly. Ganon winced as her voice sounded troubled and on the verge of crying. It scared him that he'd made her feel like that, and he got up backing away from the wall slightly.

"No, no, please don't cry." He cried out desperately to no avail. He could hear muffled sobs coming from the other side, and it practically broke his heart to hear her like that.

"Well… what is it then?" She managed to squeak out between sobs, "Don't you like me? Don't you trust me?"

"No! No! It's nothing like that! It's just that's the sort of information that they could use to lock me away!"

"So it's true. You don't trust me…" She sobbed louder. Ganon leant against the wall and could feel himself start to cry too.

"No… That's not true. I'd trust you with my life. It's just that if they locked me away, I'd never be able to hear you again." He sobbed out. He could hear her laugh half-heartedly through the wall.

"Sure, like that's true." She said through yet more strangled sobs.

"Please! Stop crying! I do trust you! My name is Ganon!" He called over. He heard her gasp abruptly, and he could even hear her rolling over to face the wall. It seemed that she had been leaning back against the wall too.

"Ganon? That's your name?"

"Yes. What's yours?" He asked back innocently. He grinned as he heard her shuffling about awkwardly, "I think I can see where this is going! And you thought I wasn't being trusting." He laughed back at her.

"Hey, that's not fair." She called back slightly angry. Ganon laughed again

"I understand. Why do you think I was holding back? The rules there are probably the same as over here too." He told her, picking a Bluk berry off the tree in front of him. He twisted a segment off of it, and threw it in the air to try and catch it in his mouth. He missed and it landed on his face, the soft berry splattering to turn his face black. He squeaked and looked over at a small pool about three metres away. He looked at his reflection, and squeaked again.

"What happened?" He heard the girl ask from the other side. Ganon shivered apprehensively as he looked at the reflection, almost afraid to admit something so careless.

"I've turned my face black!" He groaned. He heard her gigling again.

"You tried to catch a Bluk in your mouth didn't you?" She said, still giggling. Suddenly the whole thing seemed a little less ridiculous. Ganon smiled inwardly. She always seemed to say exactly what was needed to cheer him up.

"Yeah..." He finally admitted.

"It washes right off. And you can call me Laura." She cooed back softly.

"Laura... such a beautiful name..."

"What did you say?"

- - - - - -

"A BROTHER!!!" Another voice suddenly yelled out from in front of him. Ganon opened his eyes just in time to see a human child _landing _on him. He screamed as the weight hit his chest, the impact causing the bed to collapse. The shockwave carried through the building, down into the lower levels of the establishment.

Kenai looked up from the desk in his office briefly, before shaking his head.

"Clair is awake then…"

He got up and walked over to the elevator. Ganon was probably going to be absolutely terrified. He'd been on the recieving ends of her hugs before, and he had to physically rip her off him with psychic. Breathing was an act he was rather fond of.

- - - - - -

Ganon flailed about, trying to get the human child off him, but couldn't as it had its arms wrapped around his neck.

"YAAAAAAAY!!!" The child yelled right in his ear. Ganon screamed again and flailed even more, trying to dislodge the midget. He struggled as the child continued to nuzzle him. Luckily at that moment, Eddie ran into the room and pulled the little girl off him.

"Clair. If you throttle your brother to death, then obviously you won't be able to play with him. Is that what you want?" He asked teasingly. The little girl just laughed, before turning back around so Ganon could see her. She was about the same age as his human form, so about twelve, and also like him she had silver hair. However he wasn't able to notice anything else as she jumped on him and started hugging him again. He could feel her choking her, before Eddie was forced to pull her off him again.

"You really don't like him if you're this intent on throttling him."

"That wasn't throttling, I was giving him a hug!" She chimed back, before trying to jump on him again. Ganon leapt out of the bed and ran out of the room screaming. He looked around briefly and spotted the stairs, making a beeline for them.

"Ganon!!!" He heard her yell from behind him again, and leapt down the stairs. He followed them all the way down to the bottom, running straight for the doorway. He saw Lomar and Mildred perching in the atrium.

"Where do you think you're going laddy?! You've got to stay!" Lomar cried after him, before he heard another scream of the psychotic girl from upstairs, "Damn, it's Clair. On second thoughts, RUN! RUN LIKE THE WIND!" He screamed. Ganon nodded and dashed for the door, which thankfully opened as he approached it, but unfortunately he didn't know that he was too far from the sensor for it to have been him that it had registered.

CRASH!!!  
Ganon tripped over someone walking in through the doorway, sending them crashing to the floor with everything she was carrying. Ganon groaned and cradled his head in his hands, having hit something hard that gave him a sudden headache. He heard someone angry yelling at him from underneath him.

"You stupid kid! Geroff me!" The squeaking voice yelled at him. He looked at the Glaceon trapped underneath him, and quickly moved aside to let her out. She shook her head to dislodge some dead leaves and twigs from her fur, before looking at the human child that had tripped up on her.

"Well?! Aren't you going to help me or what?! Where's your manners?!" She squeaked at him. He sweat dropped and started picking up various things from the floor around her. She scowled at him as he put them in a pile in front of her.

"Well thanks a bloody lot loser, but I don't have hands. You carry them for me." She ordered. Ganon looked at her through narrowed eyes. She had absolutely no right to order him to do anything. He was about to boot her when Kenai appeared out from behind the counter. He looked at the scene before him in horror, before he dashed out.

"Ah Melissa! How are you today?" He asked her to draw her attention away from Ganon. It worked, and Kenai quickly grabbed Ganon's swinging leg with his telekinesis, pinning it back to the ground.

_Don't do anything like that ever again. Go back upstairs now._

Ganon just looked at the strange Pokemon addressing him as though he'd never seen it before, which indeed he hadn't. He just thought about the girl that was waiting for him upstairs. Kenai snorted.

_What? Clair? Well yes she will be terrifying. Downstairs we call her the Rib-Breaker._

Ganon took another step back. This Pokemon could read minds?! Kenai rolled his eyes.

_Yes, I can read minds. Upstairs. Now._

Yet another Pokemon that was trying to order him about. He crossed his arms defiantly.

_Just go back upstairs, before I force you to._

Ganon just stood there, dumbfounded. Force? How could this Pokemon force him to do anything?

_Ganon, you're an idiot._ Kenai said before pointing upstairs with one finger. Ganon felt his legs tremble under him, and they started marching on their own accord. He tried to stop them, but he couldn't resist the influence.

"So! You're running away without even bothering to apologize! Scumbag!" Melissa yelled after him, freezing his left leg solid with Ice beam.

"Melissa, stop doing that!" He heard Kenai scream at her from behind him as he continued walking. He couldn't feel any pain in his legs, but since he didn't have control of them, he couldn't feel anything anyway. He was marched back into his bedroom, and was made to sit on his destroyed bed before Kenai released the energy controlling his legs.

The sudden pain seared through him and he screamed in agony. Being a dragon type, the pain was much more agonizing than it would have been otherwise. He heard muffled footsteps running towards his room, and he winced as he saw a silver haired girl open the door. He closed his eyes, bracing for the inevitable brother charge. He wasn't disappointed.

- - - - - -

The crash could be heard from downstairs, causing all the early morning patrons to look up in alarm. Lomar and Mildred looked up at the ceiling.

"You think she got him?" Mildred asked, concerned. Lomar looked back up at the ceiling.

"Well, nothing else up here would make a noise that loud."

"Shouldn't we help him?"

"Yeah, come on. He'll also need help because of Melissa blasting him."

"Hmm…" Mildred nodded in agreement, before taking flight and up the stairs. It took them only a matter of seconds to find the room, as they just had to follow the sound of terrified screaming. Lomar opened the door, and laughed as he found Clair on top of Ganon, hugging him like there was no tomorrow. He was screaming like there was no tomorrow too. He squawked loudly behind her, and pulled at her ponytail. She leapt up and screamed, pulling her ponytail out of Lomar's grasp. Mildred flew up next to him, and they both started screeching horribly at her. She screamed and ran out of the room, enabling Mildred to shut the door and lock her out. Ganon sat up from his destroyed bed, and looked up at the pair of them.

"Ganon, sit on that chair in the middle of the room and we'll sort out that leg of yours." Lomar said. Ganon nodded and moved for him, allowing Mildred to help him hobble where he couldn't use his leg. He sat down on the steel stool, and watched as Lomar settled about three feet away from the injury.

"They've got fire insurance now Lomar, you can go nuts." Mildred cawed mischievously. Lomar looked around at her.

"You just liked all the pretty fireworks that went off last time." He said, looking back at her scornfully. She hid her face under her wing.

"Guilty as charged."

Ganon clapped his hands to get their attention back, and pointed at his leg. Lomar wasted no more time in thawing it out, and settled down on a chest of drawers as Ganon transformed back into his normal form.

"Thank goodness you came in then. Any longer and she'd have suffocated me."

"Well, that's our job until Kenai gets the funds wired, to keep you alive." Mildred said absently.

"Well, thanks anyway. So what do I do now I'm here?" He asked them. Lomar preened himself.

"Kenai knows whats best for you, so any problems, he's guaranteed to be able to solve it. "

"Who's Kenai?"

"He's the Alakazam downstairs." Mildred said whilst rifling through a sock drawer for some reason. Ganon didn't bother to ask.

"What? That idiot? It's because of him I got stuck with a frozen leg!"

"Well, he does have an IQ of 7,680. So it's worth listening to him."

_7,681. I finished another Sudoku in three seconds._ Kenai said as he teleported into the room. Ganon squealed again and rolled backwards off the bed.

"You?!"

_Yes. Me is all I can be… besides an unrivalled genius, the head of Razor, and the future of…Yes? What is it Lomar?_

"He didn't actually know about Razor."

_Oh crap. You sure he didn't know?_

"Yes."

_Really really sure?_

"Oh yes." Lomar said, nodding his head solemnly. There was a very long pause whilst Kenai analysed every single possible outcome from having just made this revelation. After about a minute, he'd finished working it all out. His eyes bulged.

"SHIT!" He screamed at the ceiling. Everyone else sweat dropped.

"Erm, Kenai, what is Razor?" Ganon eventually asked after Kenai had calmed down.

_What? Not something you need to know about._

"Oh come on!" He begged pleadingly.

_No._

"Please, please, please, please, please?"

_No, no, no, no, no. And no more questions. I shall tell you when I find it conveniant to. And no then... Lomar, you're salary has been wired over now, so you may leave._

"Already?" Lomar asked. Kenai looked at the bird incredulously.

_If you're going to wake me up at two in the morning, I might as well use the time._ He replied. Lomar shrugged.

"You got the report then?" Lomar asked, "How long until he's hired?"

_He's too young for any qualifying jobs if you're wondering when you get the commision bonus. _

"People aren't young for long." Mildred pointed out. Kenai instinctively reached for his greying hair.

_Git. I'll call you again when another portal opens up. Until then, get outta here_ Kenai growled at him, before turning back to Ganon who had been left conveniantly out of the exchange. _Anyway. Eddie sent me up to tell you that lunch is ready. So turn back into your human form, and come down._

"Well, when do I learn how to speak as a human?"

_Well, try it now. We've been using immersion therapy for you, so you should pick up the ability almost accidentally._ Kenai mused as he watched Ganon take the shape of his human form.

_Interesting technique._

"Pardon?" Ganon said without thinking about it. His voice was slightly squeaky, but it was still recognisable as a word.

_Never mind. Anyway, you've just proven that my method is working. You've already picked up enough to form recognisable words. Try the following sentence quickly 'She sells sea shells on the sea shore.'._

"She shells sea sells on… the shea shore." He said, the tongue twister working it's magic and tying his tongue up in endless knots.

_It's close enough. Even humans have trouble with that._

"Hold on… shouldn't they be able to say it perfectly?"

_They should, but they can't. If I had a trans-dimensional viewer of some sort, I'd show you some humans that just tried to say it to their computers._

"Why would they do that?" Ganon asked, scratching his head.

_Because they're humans. Nothing they do makes sense to us. So are you coming down for dinner or not? At this rate, it'll have gone cold._

"Fine, fine." Ganon said, walking up to Kenai. The Pokemon led him back out the doorway and down the stairs to the ground floor. The mess left by the Glaceon was gone, and there was a strange smell coming from the next room.

"What is it?" He asked.

_Cloyster Soup._

"What sort of berry is Cloyster?"

_It's another Pokemon._

"You're joking." Ganon cried out appalled.

_Don't worry about it. It's made using the shells cast off as a Cloyster grows. No Pokemon were harmed in its making._

"Oh, that's much better."

_Anyway. You eat it using this thing called a spoon. It's a human invention. They don't seem to like using their fingers, despite the law of nature where you eat it with fingers unless it can be sucked through a straw._

"But soup can be eaten with a straw…"

_But you don't get a straw you get a spoon._

"That sucks…"

_No, straws suck. Spoons are used to pick up some soup, and put it in your mouth. Now it's time to try it for real._ He announced, throwing the door to the dining room open. Ganon looked in to see Clair and Eddie already in their seats.

"Why do I get the feeling this is going to be an ordeal?"

Laura was still asleep. Her dream last night had been even more vivid for her than they had ever been before, and she was loathe to wake up. The pounding at the door was hardly helping matters.

"Oh, go away…" She mumbled at the door, not caring who it might be.

"Laura? Are you all right? Your voice sounds all squeaky." Said a girls voice from outside. Laura woke with a start. She was still in the Kids Grid, and no-one except Martin and Geraint knew she was a Pokemon.

"Er… just a minute!" She yelled out, forgetting that she was in her Pokemon form.

"Hold on. That's not a human voice. Is there a Pokemon in there? Hey guys! There's a Pokemon in here! Help me break the door down!" The thumping on the door intensified, and she squealed slightly as Martin jumped onto the bed.

"Don't say a word. Change into your human form and…"

"Hey, there's a Marshtomp in there. Come on!"

"Don't say anything. I'll just squeak a little, and you make this gesture," He held a finger in front of his lips, "And sit on the bed, holding me as though comforting me."

She transformed into her human form, quickly sitting on the bed. Surprisingly, the Mud Fish curled up against her side, appearing to sob, just as the door unlocked. A boy with green hair burst in, revealing a device suckered to the door frame. Laura put her finger to her lips as Martin had instructed. The boy stopped and put his hand over his chin, apparently observing the scene before him. He turned around and pulled the device of the door, and closed it.

"Well done Martin. You managed to keep a cool head."

"Damn it Geraint! How did you know?"

"I know that Laura wouldn't have been able to convince you into assuming such a helpless looking pose, and that you aren't that helpless to begin with."

"Yeah, but your other cronies won't know that."

"They're not cronies, they're friends, but you have a point. Besides, your personnel files have been removed from your groups database, so as far as we are aware, you've been fired."

"They did what?! THOSE SELFISH… CHEATING… BASTARDS!!!" He yelled, accentuating every word with a punch into the bed, causing Laura to bounce on the bed again. Geraint laughed as he saw the look of discomfort on her face.

"Martin, can you tone it down a bit?" He said. Martin just whimpered.

"But my salary!" Geraint looked very intrigued.

"Really? What was it?"

"Six figures… a whole six!" He whimpered feebly. Geraint took a sharp intake of breath.

"Oooh… That stings… Anyway. Laura? How about I take you down to your new department." Geraint said, holding out a hand courteously. Martin leapt in the way.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa. What department are you putting her in?"

"Field."

"So you're going to make her a field agent. That's your department."

"So."

"Oh stuff it. You won't listen to me anyway. But remember. If you lay even a finger on her, I am so going to eat you."

"What do you mean eat me?"

"It means I put you in my mouth and chew."

"Ah. But you don't have teeth." Geraint pointed out. Martin hissed and opened his mouth, baring four small fangs.

"Those aren't designed for chewing. They're just for latching onto fish." Martin closed his mouth.

"Whatever. Let's just go. I presume you have a cafeteria somewhere."

Geraint just sighed and led them out of the room. Laura watched carefully where she was being led, considering she'd need to remember the route. Martin wasn't so fussed about looking where they were, he was taking much more enjoyment in sticking his middle finger up at everyone he walked past. They all hurried past him with outraged looks on their faces.

"Marvolo, can you please control yourself?"

"My name's Mart-" Geraint bent down slightly and put a hand over his mouth, which Martin had to resist the urge to chomp down on.

"People know you by name. Therefore the new name will keep you well hidden. If they believe that you are a different Pokemon, they'll be even less likely to put two and two together."

Martin pulled the humans hand off his face.

"Yeah, and since when did you care?"

"Since you brought Laura here." He said smiling at her.

Martin rolled his eyes, and continued to follow. He led them back down the stairway into the main room, and took a left turn into another tunnel. It was much cleaner that the main room, and the walls were red tiles, with blue borders at the top and bottom. Laura sighed slightly as she looked at them. Martin picked up on it.

"You miss him don't you?" He asked her suddenly. She looked down at him, trying to feign ignorance, but flushed as he gestured to his chest. She looked back down to notice the silver Latios swinging idly on its chain around her neck. She looked back up at the end of the corridor and nodded sadly.

"I thought so."

"What are you two talking about back there?" Geraint asked, subconsciously running a hand through his hair again.

"Not you, that's for sure. You look a mess. You were up all night again weren't you?" Martin asked him. He smirked evilly as he saw Geraint falter.

"Well, I couldn't sleep."

"Restless then?" He asked in a sarcastic caring tone. Geraint blushed deeply.

"Hey, knock it off will you?"

"Hey, not my problem. You just made something out of it yourself. I'm not making any references at all to it being the mating season for fire-types and that you'll be prone to those... urges..."

Geraint muttered some obscenities under his breath.

They soon arrived at the breakfast counter. Today's options were wither cereal, or Piloswine rashers and eggs. Laura chose the cereal, whilst Geraint eagerly snapped up a double portion of rashers. Martin just wandered along behind them, stealing the eggs from Geraint's plate as he sat down. Geraint gave him an evil eye, then sighed as he realised that Martin wouldn't have got served on his own anyway. He poked a machine in the middle of the table, causing it to whir and cough out an espresso. He downed it in one gulp, immune to the burning water due to his fire type resistance, before wolfing down the rashers in the same amount of time. Laura just looked up at him, having just finished her first spoonful of cereal. She gawped at him for a few seconds, before he burped loudly. He patted himself on the chest, and looked around at some of the kids around him who were whooping and applauding quietly. Laura would have continued to gawp at him if Martin didn't tap her on the arm. She looked across at him.

"Are you going to be eating that?" Was all he asked, pointing at the bowl of cereal minus one spoonful. She looked back down at it, and continued eating. Geraint got up and walked over to a sink at the side and washed his hands. At least he had something that resembled some degree of manners. Geraint walked back over just as she finished the bowl. She picked it up and looked around for somewhere to put it. Geraint laughed at her.

"Just put it back down. We're the second most advanced organisation on the planet, so why would we resort to manual labour. We build a droid in here that does all that for us."

"Yeah, but your lot is only the second most advanced because our lot helped you." Martin added. Geraint rocked his head, half agreeing.

"Well... We'd have got there eventually. Anyway, time to show you to your new post." He said, getting up. He beckoned Laura to follow after him, with Martin in tow behind her. She looked back to see a large droid descending from the ceiling, clamping down on each of the surfaces of the tables. A blue light started blinking slowly next to the seal. Geraint led them back into the main hall, this time continuing to the opposite side towards an elevator. He called the cubicle up, tapping his foot as he waited. The doors opened with a customary ding, and he stepped in. Laura followed suit with Martin, who spontaneously began to headbutt the wall.

"What are you doing?" Geraint asked him. Whilst he could honestly say that he knew Martin best out of anyone here, even he had never seen him do this sort of thing before. Martin just continued to ignore him, grunting each time his head hit.

"Marvolo… MARVOLO!!!" He yelled at the Marshtomp. Martin stopped abruptly, and turned to look at Geraint.

"But…" Geraint coughed twice, tapping the wall with his knuckles about ten centimetres below a lens embedded in the wall, "Oh. I was just trying to remember where we're going. I know for a fact that the field agents department isn't this way."

"Oh that's simple, Marvolo. We are going up to the Pokemon Storage. Remember yesterday when I said we needed to get Laura set up with a battle partner? We're going up to do that now. The options are Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip. All of them are female, and twelve years old like you."

"How do you arrange things like that?"

"There's about fifty of each up there. So far, Torchics have been the most popular because of the sheer power of fire types."

"That's not true. I'd easily kick their butts."

"Yes, but that's because you're a water type. But now let us say you went up against a Treecko. You would be pretty much stuffed."

"I'm stronger than anything in that vault."

"Until its trained."

"So then Laura should choose Torchic." Martin concluded.

"But the Torchic would be too scared of you to be able to be able to settle down. What about a Mudkip?"

"Whoa. No chance. I'm not sleeping with a girl in my room."

"You already do."

"Yeah, but Laura's not my species. I'm not you, so I'm comfortable with that arrangment." Geraint cringed again.

"Well anyway, it's Laura's choice… oh, we're here." Geraint said as the lift dinged again. He opened the door, and led them through into a room that looked more like a luxurious salon, despite the conveyer belt running along the other side. The walls were polished wood, and all the seats were leather. Martin jumped up and landed on one of them, running his hand along the material.

"Hey, Geraint. How come we don't get anything like this in our rooms?"

"Well, it's simply because the inhabitants here are much more important. These Pokemon are the starters for trainers before the official age of ten. This room is where the adventures of hundreds of trainers have actually started." Martin pointed an accusing finger at him.

"That's illegal."

"So? You can hardly call all of your group's ventures legal." Martin curled the finger back into his palm, muttering angrily.

"The law can't touch us. "

"So, Laura." Geraint continued quickly, "This is where you will choose your starter. So which will it be?" He gestured over to the conveyer belt, where unnoticed by the rooms occupants, three Pokeballs had been rolled in. He pointed at each one in turn.

"Treecko, Mudkip, and Torchic. Make your choice." He said, folding his arms. She looked back over at Martin, who had just discovered that the chair could recline, and was now fiddling with every aspect of it. She sighed and looked back at the belt, before choosing one based on the picture mark on the belt below. She picked it up and looked at it, hoping for some instruction on what it did. She looked over at Geraint, who made a strange gesture with one hand like throwing. She blinked and looked at him again. He was still making the throwing gesture. She decided that that was a bit cruel, and shook her head. He rolled his eyes.

"Pokeballs are containment fields that lead into non-dimensional space. They can't feel the Pokeball hitting the ground, and it doesn't hurt them in the least." He told her before, obviously having met this attitude before. She looked back at the Pokeball in her hands, imagining what it was like inside. She reasoned to herself she could ask it when it came out. She held the ball in one hand, and span around on one leg, hurling the Pokeball high into the air. She looked up at it, and lost her balance.

"Nice flourish, shame about the landing…" Martin said from his couch. He watched the ball arch through the air, and land on the floor beside the conveyer belt. Laura got up just in time to see the flash of light, and a Pokemon shape forming on the floor. Martin leant forwards in the chair, staring at the Pokemon she had released.

"What did you choose?!" He said in shock as he looked at her. The Pokemon opened it's eyes and looked at Martin.

"Martin?" She squeaked. Laura just looked at the odd couple. Martin though, wasn't having such a good time.

"Oh shit… LEMME OUTTA HERE!!!" He yelled as he leapt out of the chair and made a mad scramble for the doorway. The Pokemon growled and pelted after him.

"MARTIN?!" She screamed angrily at him, before leaping up and tackling him in the back of the head. He fell over, and he could feel her hitting the back of his head repeatedly.

"You dumped me! You dumped me! You dumped me!" She screamed at him, hitting him again and again and again. He squeaked as the Pokemon continued to pound him. Geraint walked over to Laura who was still paralysed by this.

"Err… you need to control your Pokemon." He said, tapping her on the shoulder. She looked back at the Pokeball in her hand, and looked up at him.

"Uh… you hold the ball out at arms length, pointing at her, and think the word return. These also use a psychic field to perform their jobs."

She did as she was told, and was amazed to see a beam of red light flash from the button on the front of the Pokeball, and striking the little Pokemon, dissolving it's body into the red light, before being sucked back into the ball. She looked at it in wonder, and couldn't help but feel sorry for the Pokemon. Martin noticed the look, and frowned.

"Hey! Spare a little sympathy for me here! Of all the Mudkips in the world, why did you have to pick Maria?"

* * *

Ganon was on his hands and knees scrubbing at the floor, muttering angrily as he tried to shift the soup stains that coated half the room.

"Ganon. Do you even have control over your motor functions as a human? At least you know now that throwing a soup bowl makes a mess." Kenai said, watching him from the chair he was sat in.

"Hey. I didn't throw the soup. It just exploded on it's own."

"Soup bowls don't just explode. What did you think you were doing?" Ganon opened his mouth to speak, but Kenai held up his hand. "Don't actually bother answering that."

Ganon groaned and knuckled back down to wash the rest of the soup off the floors. It was hard and boring labour, but at least it gave Ganon time to think about what had happened. He'd just thought about how the cream paste looked like his bogeys, and it suddenly exploded.

"Bogeys? That's the first time I've heard that description for my soup." Kenai said, glaring at him.

Ganon would have laughed, but a Glaceon walked into the room looking very troubled. Ganon recognised the Pokemon as Melissa, and instantly sat back so his legs couldn't be frozen again.

"Er... Sir? We've lost a Moonlight and a Sonicboom TM."

"What do you mean lost? Actually don't answer that. Well you brought them in earlier."

"Yeah. They were in the collection I brought in when that kid," She gave Ganon a scorning glance, "Tripped over me. I think he stole them."

"Hey! I didn't steal anything!"

"What the hell? He understands me?"

"Yes yes... Melissa. If you actually bothered to look rather than make wild accusations, you'd notice he doesn't have pockets."

"Uhhhhhhh... What about..." She stammered. Kenai wasn't having any of it.

"Shut up. I'll have a word with him. Go back downstairs and doublecheck." Kenai said calmly, although judging by the flame he now had coiled around his fist, he wouldn't be calm for long if she didn't obey. Melissa could feel her neck begin to sweat just by looking at it.

"Fine, but you'd better come down soon to sort this mess out. We can't claim expenses without them." She said. Kenai then did something that Ganon hadn't expected him to. He laughed.

"Always the expenses! Every time this happens you only worry about the expenses!"

"Hey! I'd watch it if I were you, your project is expensive enough. And not just monetary wise. It's because of you we're now at war with the Kids Grid."

"DOWNSTAIRS! NOW!" He screeched at her, throwing the fireball at her. She jumped about three feet in the air to dodge, before turning tail and fleeing. Kenai began taking deep breaths, closing his eyes to try and calm himself down.

"Ganon. When you tripped over Mel, did you experience any headaches in particular afterwards?" He asked suddenly, barely moving from his meditative position.

Ganon looked back up from washing the floor to look at Kenai. He dipped the cloth back into the bucket of water.

"I don't know what you- Argh!" The bucket suddenly exploded, showering both of them with soapy water. Kenai heard it, and turned around just in time to get a faceful of it. He groaned

"Gnnnnnnnn... Well, this coat has had worse on it..." Kenai said, not seeming too bothered by the water, "You did have a headache didn't you."

"Yes, but what difference does that make?"

"When a Pokemon learns a TM, it configures their brain to allow them to use a particular ability that typically they can't learn naturally. Usually the process is painless, but in cases where it isn't as suitable, it tends to induce headaches."

"So that's what you think happened to me?"

"No, I know it's happened to you. Your Aura has changed marginally from what I read when the Swellows brought you in."

"Aura?"

"There's a Lucario downstairs that is doing classes on Aura reading."

"Sounds like freakish Mumbo-Jumbo to me." Ganon said, rolling his shoulders to alleviate the stiffness from cleaning the floor.

"Well, you can use your new Sonicboom ability to blast the stains off the floor."

"Won't that damage the floor?"

"No. All Pokecentre floors are made resistant to Pokemon attacks, and this one is a further enhanced version of it."

"Why."

"Just shut up and practice your Sonicbooms." Kenai said, sitting back on his chair. Ganon looked back down at the most stubborn stain on the floor, and concentrated. He felt absolutely nothing.

"You're concentrating on doing the move. Don't, for two reasons. One, it should become natural. And two, if you concentrate too much and a stray thought enters your mind, you'll miss. You don't really want to miss here."

"Why?"

"Stop it with the questions. Just practice."

Ganon scowled at Kenai. He was deliberating avoiding something. He smiled as a Sonicboom hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him backwards off his chair. Kenai wheezed and staggered back upright. He scowled back, before he shrugged his head half-heartedly.

"Oh well, at least you've figured out that special powers are triggered by Will rather than thought."

"But back in the nursery I was taught to use thought to activate my powers."

"Well, no offence, but your tutors were absolute retards then. You probably would have found that your powers weren't as potent as that of many others in your group."

Ganon thought back to those particular lessons. Everyone else had indeed seemed to have much greater powers.

"Ganon, hello?" Kenai clicked his fingers in front of his face, "Those others that you were thinking of were using their full potential. However, as their skills are based on thought, they can't improve any further, and judging by your other memories, your other tutors were just as negligent. However using Will, your powers can increase. As of yet, no limit cap has been discovered, and Will matures with age. Let me demonstrate. For this instance, I will point out that I am, unfortunately, nearing my 50th birthday."

Kenai held up his palms in front of him, and closed his eyes. He took yet another deep breath, before opening his eyes. They were shining a light red, and he waved his palms up and down slightly. The light in the room darkened considerably, and the curtains swung shut to plunge the room into almost complete darkness. However, Kenai could still be seen as clearly as a few moments ago. He closed his hands into fists, opening the right one to reveal a ball of flame. It wrapped around his hand and up his arm, and he swung upwards with it to attack an imaginable enemy. The flame continued along it's path, making an orbital around him. He opened his other hand, which had a blue crystaline structure, with which he did the same. He held both of his palms facing each other, and sparks flared between them. In his right, yellow sparks of electricity, and in his right the purple sparks of... something. If Ganon had been able to identify it, he'd have recognised it Psychic. He held them out to either side of him, spinng in a roundhouse punch, leaving yet another two trails. The four trails burnt for about half a second, before they contracted and coalesced to form a single shining sphere. Kenai was nowhere to be seen as the ball exploded in a shower of Blue sparks. The light in the room returned, and Kenai was nowhere to be seen.

Someone then tapped him on the shoulder. He looked around to see the Alakazam grinning at him.

"And that was just my morning workout."

Ganon fainted.

* * *

"Laura. This is a belt designed for keeping Pokeballs on." Geraint said, offering her a belt from a rack on the wall.

"What?! Are you kidding? She can't keep her! Marshtomps are supposed to be blue, not beaten black and blue!" Martin yelled at him from behind a sofa. he wanted to put as much distance between himself and the Pokeball containing his ex-girlfriend.

"Well actually Martin, this is the best set up anyway. If she got a Treecko, you'd be cocky about it and it would have a vendetta, and she'd be at a disadvantage to most of the trainers here. If she got a Torchic, it'd be scared of you and she wouldn't be able to train it. With the Mudkip..."

"Maria."

"Maria then, she'd be at an advantage to a majority of trainers here."

"But I'm still scared of her."

"Yeah, but at least she won't get lazy. Laura could reward her by letting her beat you up after a good session of training." He said, the barest hint of a smile visable on his face. Laura saw it and couldn't help smiling at the possibility. It may have been cruel to Martin, but it made sense to get a Pokemon that was always going to work. She accepted the belt.

"Well, that settles it. She is now your Pokemon."

"Noooooooooo! I'm doomed!" Martin wailed. They both ignored him. Laura was looking at the Pokeball and wanted to open it again. She threw it back in the air, and it landed releasing her. Maria looked around briefly, before noticing Martin again. She leapt up and tried to bat at him again, not noticing that Laura had caught her in mid-leap. She waved a paw at Martin angrily, trying to get at him again. Strangely enough though, she was being quiet.

"Maria. Please calm down." Geraint said to her, drawing her attention away from Martin. He took the brief reprieve to hide behind a sofa.

"What do you want human?" She asked angrily, still unaware she was being held in the air.

"Well for a start, I'm telling you you've got a trainer now."

"Well where is she? I want to see her." She said. Laura and Geraint sweatdropped.

"Er, she's holding you."

"Don't be daft. I'd notice a human holding me." She said.

"Well look up anyway."

She rolled her eyes and looked up, not expecting to see anyway, and she squealed when she saw Lauras face about a foot away from hers. She leapt out of her arms and jumped onto the sofa behind which Martin was hiding. He squeaked again, but thankfully she didn't notice, still preoccupied with looking at Laura.

"You found me a trainer?"

"Yes. It's her first full day today, so you'll be spending the day in her apartment getting used to her."

"Why can't I get used to her in the stadium? I want to beat Martin up for dumping me."

"Because she has... special needs. You see, she's mute at the minute. We're working on a program to allow her to speak, but until then you'll have to wait with her."

"Aww."

"By the way. That wasn't Martin you were attacking, it was Marvolo."

"No, it was Martin."

"Then you don't know that we've had to withdraw our support from Razor." He said, almost hating having to say the words. She gaped at him.

"You did not!" She answered back slowly. He nodded.

"Yes we did. Because of that, he..." He pointed at Martin behind the sofa, "Is constantly under threat of attack."

Maria looked back at Martin, who was still cowering behind the sofa.

"Why do you care? You should want to kill him too."

"Yes, I should, but he brought Laura here, and for that I'm personally very grateful."

"What? I thought you and that other girl were an item."

"What?! Why does everyone think I'm falling for Laura?!"

"Because you're a Typhlosion Hybrid, and it's mating season for them. To put it simply, you're desperate."

"Hey! I'm not! I'm only a kid here remember."

"You're Typhlosion form is mature though, it has been for years."

"Shut up! Laura! Take your Pokemon back to your room at once!" He ordered before storming out. Maria heard the door slam, and turned back to Laura.

"Hormones... Well? Aren't we going somewhere?" She said, padding up around her and jumping onto her shoulder. Laura walked around the sofa, and picked Martin up by the arm, dragging her along behind her, his face a silent plea for redemption.

- - - - - -

After about half an hour of passages and dead ends, she got back to her room. Martin went back to the desk to poke at the device again. Laura nudged the little Pokemon off her shoulder and onto her bed. Maria began to jump about on Lauras bed, and Martin shot her a seething glance. She took one look at him, and began to bounce even more. He began to shake with rage.

"Laura! Turn back and sort her out okay?!" He yelled at her. She jumped at the sudden interuption to her brushing her hair, before looking around to see Martin on the verge of turning around and booting Maria out of the room. She transformed, earning a shocked gasp from Maria.

"A Latias? My trainer is a Latias?!"

"Wait. How do you know what I am?" She asked the small Pokemon. It stopped and ran a paw in circles over the material of the bed. Martin growled again.

"That noise is almost as annoying as you jumping all the time! Can't you see I'm trying to alter this? Just tell her what she wants to know!" He howled at her. She jumped, never knowing that Martin could be this angry.

"Well, I used to be owned by a trainer that was on a Pokedex Journey."

"Pokedex Journey?"

"They go around and catch one of every type of Pokemon to catalogue their data. Martin has a complete version."

"Really? Martin, do you have a complete Pokedex?" She asked looking back over at him.

"PISS OFF! I'M BUSY!"

"That's a yes, Laura. He was fed up of trying to rely on his memory to identify Pokemon he hadn't met before, so he worked through Razor to compile the first complete Pokedex to record any data he might need . He's actually rather gifted when it comes to electronics." Martin swore violently at the device again, "Usually anyway."

"Yeah. Yesterday he made a bug sweeper and found a Caterpie hiding in the wardrobe with a tape recorder on it's head."

"You think that's impressive?"

Martin sighed as he heard the girls gossiping behind him. It wouldn't help to stop them, they'd just carry on again later. He heard a scream behind him, and spun around to see Laura lying on the floor unconcious, a flicker of a spark fading out from the amulet around her neck.

* * *

_Another thing I couldn't put in the story well. The device that was suckered onto Lauras door was what made the girls voice and the sounds of knocking. Geraint used it to test how she'd react under pressure, as is standard policy for secretive firms I've decided. Field agents require Pokemon, so that's why they didn't go straight down to a lab if that's what anyone was expecting._


	6. Initiation

**# # # Chapter Specific Notes # # #**

_Italics. Nothing new, still signify thought processes. I don't actually use it to indicate one character specifically, but theres a "Section like this" in those speech marks which is said by a television. More specifically, a newsreader._

* * *

**Chapter 6: Initiation**

Laura was lying awake at night in the Latias Nursery. She had been tossing and turning all night, but she was still no closer to sleep than she was about three hours ago. She couldn't understand why she was feeling this way, although it had only started three months ago.

She bolted upright from the bed. Three months. Ever since she'd first spoken to the boy on the other side of the wall.

"Laura? What are you doing awake at this time of night?" Came a voice from the bunk underneath her. Laura winced, having not anticipated that jolting so violently would have been enough to wake up her room-mate.

"Err… I'm not awake. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… See? I'm asleep." Laura whispered. The other Latias wasn't impressed, and shifted around so she could see over Laura's bunk.

"Come off it Laura. You haven't been sleeping for ages."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Laura said, turning away from her roommate to gaze out the window space.

"Oh come off it. You've been tossing and turning for the last two months. Something's up. I've known you too long for you to hide it."

"Larkspur…" Laura whimpered, desperate to avoid her persistant questioning and reason. Her words were true enough though; ever since they were barely out of the shell, they had shared a room.

"It's true, and you know it. There's something wrong, what is it?"

"Well… Not wrong exactly…"

"Then what's your problem?"

"It just feels like… I don't know."

"Oh come on. You can tell me." Larkspur purred, her tone changing slightly to one more seductive, another tact she frequently used on Laura and she was well aware of it.

"No I can't."

"Yes you can. I'm always here for you. You know that." Larkspur cooed softly. Laura rolled her eyes. The girl seriously needed to stop flirting; it was bordering on ridiculous.

"You're almost a year older than me. You won't always be there."

"Then try your best without me when that time comes. But by then, all this mess should have sorted itself out, and you'll be my precious strawberry-sweetheart again, huh? Everything will work out fine eventually." Larkspur said, pulling her sheets back over her. Laura laid back on her bed, thoughts of that boy still running through her head. She sighed and rolled over to fall asleep. As her face touched the pillow, for a split second she imagined it was the cheek of that boy she was nuzzling against, before she returned to her senses and realised it was just the cotton fibre of the cover. She rolled onto her back to try to block out these alien feelings swarming through her. She looked out through the skylight to see the night sky, thousands of diamonds twinkling down at her from their lofty perches. She looked out to her favourite star and smiled at it gently. She looked absently at the ones around it, thinking just how much her favourite looked like the eye of a… She groaned loudly as she realised exactly who she was thinking off.

"Laura, what are you doing up there?" Larkspur asked her. Laura sighed, knowing exactly what she was hoping.

"I was looking at the sky again."

"Oh." If there was any dissappointment, she was hiding it well, "Your favourite star I presume?"

"How did you know?"

"I've shared a room with you for six years. You hardly expect me to not know you." Larkspur said, sitting up slightly in the lower bunk. Laura paused.

"I think I need to get some air…" Laura mumbled, nudging her sheets back off.

"But it's past curfew! You can't go out now!"

"Well I don't care. It's the only way I'm going to get some sleep tonight." Laura said, floating out of her bed and moving towards the doorway. Larkspur made a brief movement as though to stop her, but simply shrugged instead.

"Suit yourself. But if they find you, don't come crying to me." Laura held up her claws into a W.

"Whatever." She said, before pulling the curtain aside. She landed, and waddled across the floor. The main building was very strict about flying indoors, and any juniors that flew would trigger some hidden wards which would immediately alert a tutor. She looked around at the main atrium, almost scared by how much more foreboding it looked in the darkness. The pillars around the edge curved almost maliciously up to the vaulted ceiling above, gargoyles perched at their heights leering down at her. She trembled as their visages seemed to twist and writhe as she passed them, the shadows rendering them even more grotesque than before. She shivered and looked back down at the floor, which was thankfully relatively unmarked, save for the occasional gold emboss pattern every few metres. She smiled as she saw the icon, a Latias and another slightly larger yet similar creature flying around each other in perfect symmetry. She moved quickly to try to get to the door, shouldering it open to get outside. She sighed as a cool breeze caressed her face, drawing her thoughts back to the reason she couldn't sleep. She spread her wings and jumped into the air, gliding over the paved yard and across the long grassy banks to her favourite spot. Her secret little hideaway. She landed softly behind a large bush that hid it from the rest of the Nursery, and crawled over to where she would usually sit when she was talking to Ganon. She rested her cheek against the wall, imagining he was there to help her sleep. She leapt back from the wall in surprise when she heard soft snoring from the other side. She smiled. Clearly he hadn't been able to sleep either. She sighed softly as she laid her head down by the wall to sleep.

"Laura. Laura! Wake up." A voice said, nudging at her side. She groaned slightly, not wanted to move from her position. The intruder sighed resentfully, and lowered a claw to her feet. In one deft movement, he'd grabbed her ankle and flipped her up into the air, startling her 'awake' immediately. She squealed, but her assailant didn't even flinch. From her vantage point upside down on the grass, she could see a pale glimmer radiating from a point behind her, sparkling particles breifly passing in front of her face before snuffing out like candles. Turning her head back, she could see her mysterious assailant hovering behind her. A silver Latios, the source of the glimmer, was watching her. He appeared to be considerably less solid though than a typical Latios, apparantly made of some kind of dense light; A spectral Eon.

"Who are you?" Laura asked, trembling slightly. This silver Latios was at least four times the size of her, which was more than just a little intimidating. It bowed its head briefly.

"My name is Argent." He said clearly. Laura narrowed her eyes sceptically, but the Latios continued before she could voice an opinion.

"There are exceptional names to your Lola convention, as you obviously know, to reflect their uniqueness. I was named Argent, because I am silver. Wolfram was a genius and an exceptionally talented designer. He chose the name himself, although his reasoning is his own." Argent finished. Laura opened her mouth, but again, the Latios was ahead of her.

"I'm here because you are the current owner of my amulet, regardless how dubious your method was."

"But I-"

"I'm not a completely inanimate object, I saw it well enough. But regardless of intent, at least there's the undeniable fact that after so long being forced to guide humans that I am finally a tutor to an Eon as the powers intended."

Laura immediately tensed at the word Tutor, since it was synonomus with misery and over-ruling. Argent, sensing the discomfort, breifly looked away, analysing the dream he had been brought into. Ahead, he could see the moonlit outline of the nursery, and he immediately recognised the handiwork of Wolfram.

"You're in a dream about the nursery... but why is half of it missing?" He asked, glancing across at a blue energy field, which Laura would easily have been able to recognise as the Wall, but seemed alien to the Latios. Laura looked over at it, shaking her head.

"That's always been there. The Tutor's here say its the edge of the universe and there's nothing behind it, but-"

"This world is wrong." Argent interupted quietly, moving over to the Wall and inspecting it closely, "This was never here before, it's been- how many Latios were in this area when you were kept here?"

"None."

"Oh by Astrid... Wolfram..." Argent immediately began scouring the wall in earnest, "If he's pissed off Eva yet again... "

"What?" Laura asked, although clearly Argent was too busy to answer since he was still mumbling various things to himself.

"Definately abused the planar mechanics... Realms fractured enough as it is... " Drastically pulling his arm back, he plunged a claw into the wall. Much to Laura's amazement, the contact point cracked under the impact, shattering into paper-thin shards that dissolved as they hit the ground. Transfixxed, Laura looked through the hole that had been opened up as Argent flew through. It wasn't an exact mirror image of her side, only the nursery building itself looked symmetrical.

"I changed the physics of the dream so I could build up the other side as it was in my memory." Argent said as he hovered in front of her. Laura was too transfixxed with something a few metres behind to notice that though. Turning around, Argent sighed as he spotted Laura's memory-based version of Ganon lying there asleep, "I see your memory of this place is fine. But I'll warn you now, I'll wake you up in ten minutes."

"Huh?" Laura asked. She had thought he'd been reading her mind, but that was something she wanted to keep private.

"It's your dream..." He said finally, before flying off again, dissolving into the air as he left. Now knowing she was alone, Laura smiled and laid herself down on the grass besides Ganon, wrapping one of his arms over her back, and taking the opportunity to kiss his cheek.

* * *

Ganon opened his eyes slowly, waking up from an almost blissful dream. He looked up at the room he was in, only vaguely aware that he hadn't fallen asleep there. He looked down and noticed that he was holding something in his arms. For a second, his mind thought it was Laura, but then he realized that it was just a red pillow. He rubbed the back of his neck gingerly as he wandered over to the window, resting his elbows on the windowsill. He looked out over the landscape absently.

"Oh… Laura… I miss you." He whispered to no-one in particular. These three days had been the longest he'd ever gone without speaking to her since before they'd met. It was absolute torture for him. He sighed and looked down at the town below, instantly startling him out of his reverie. There were several large groups of both humans and Pokemon making their way through the town towards the PokeCentre, although they were predominantly Pokemon. He squeaked before heading downstairs to find Kenai. He jumped the last few steps before heading back into the dining room where he had been cleaning soup earlier. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't there, although much more surprising was there was no trace of soup anywhere. He ran back out into the main hall, nearly tripping over yet another Glaceon. Or rather, the same Glaceon.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Melissa yelled at him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Do you know where Kenai is?"

"Course I do. He's in his office at the moment."

"Office?"

"It's where he does his work. You have heard of work before I presume? Because you still look like a lazy slacker to me. We're working our socks off here making sure our guests have somewhere respectable to stay, whilst you're just stood there getting in the way. Get upstairs and do something useful!"

"Okay. Sorry Mel." He said back, before leaping up the stairs. He could hear her yelling after him.

"IT'S MELISSA! ONLY MY FRIENDS CAN CALL ME MEL, AND SURE AS HELL YOU'RE NO FRIEND OF MINE!"

Ganon decided it would be better for him to just ignore her from now on.

He found Clair in one of the rooms, trying in vain to get a cover onto a duvet. She looked at him briefly before continuing to try and get the cover in place. Ganon would have continued past the room, if it wasn't for Clair yelling at him.

"GANON! HELP ME!"

Ganon leaned back so he could see through the door, and had to hold back a laugh when he saw that she had managed to leave the duvet almost unmoved, but had sealed herself in the cover. He walked into the room, and stood next to the shaking bag.

"How? I don't know how to do these."

"One end of the cover is open. I just can't find it from here. Just get me out!"

Ganon looked over the material, but the alternating colours made it hard for him to focus.

"Are you actually doing anything?" She asked.

"Yes! It's just the colour's confusing me."

"A green strip. You're looking for a green strip with the buttons on it."

Ganon looked back at the sheet, and noticed the green strip underneath it. He grabbed it and pulled. He winced as Clair screamed and landed on the ground with a heavy thump. He realised that she must have been stood on it. She clambered out of the bag, her hair an absolute mess.

"I think you were stood on it." Ganon said, hiding a grin behind one hand.

"No kidding," She panted out, "Now help me get this done properly." She said, before giving the sheet to Ganon and walking out. Ganon stared at her before looking at the sheet, then at the duvet. He scratched the back of his head. This was going to take a while.

* * *

After about half an hour of struggling with the sheet, he had finally managed it. He stepped out of the room, and almost crashed into Kenai. If the Alakazam hadn't sidestepped to the right, then it would have been a full on collision, although instead, Ganon simply fell flat on his face instead. Kenai glanced through the doorway at the sheet Ganon had eventually changed.

"So you can't use telekinesis." Kenai said absently. Ganon picked himself up from the carpet, touching his forehead where he'd landed.

"How do you… actually don't answer that."

"Good answer." Kenai said before continuing along the corridor. He turned around to face Ganon at the end, beckoning him over with one finger. Ganon looked around and pointed at himself, earning an annoyed sigh from Kenai. He made the beckoning motion again, and Ganon yelped as his legs sprang forwards from under him, running after Kenai from the psychic force grabbing them. He was led towards the far end of the corridor, towards a room that had been locked ever since Ganon had arrived. Kenai pulled a key out of his pocket, and unlocked it, pushing Ganon inside. Ganon yelped as Kenai let go of his legs half-way through, causing him to land on his face. Kenai rolled his eyes.

"Sometimes I wonder why I bother with new recruits. You know the drill Lazlo." Kenai said into the room, before turning around and locking it. Ganon looked back at the door in fear, before turning around to see who he was being left with. He looked into the room which appeared to be mostly made of metal. Nine small television sat on a table just across from the door, each screen split into about a further four, each actually a live feed from cameras located around the town and elsewhere in the building. Three Meditites were sat in front of them, watching them intently. Ganon looked at each screen briefly, before a loud cough and a deep click behind him brought his attention away from them. He looked around to find a Lucario wearing a green army vest and a headset. It was holding a large tube shaped object in its arms, one gloved hand wrapped underneath the main section, and another gloved hand near the back end on what appeared to be a block sticking out the side. Ganon took one step towards the Pokemon, and it hefted the tube so it was braced against his shoulder. He slid a section on the underside, forwards and backwards each accompanied by a deep click.

"Stay where you are." The Lucario said. Ganon instinctively held his hands in the air, causing the Lucario to laugh slightly. However the cannon remained firmly planted on his shoulder.

"Even though you've only been in the land of men for a few days and you already know how to respond to when someone is pointing a gun at you."

"Land of men?"

"Latios, dropped from a portal in the Segon Valley from the Lateral Realm. Land of Eons to the land of men. General Kenai gave me the full file."

"He's a general?" The Lucario looked offended.

"Of course he's a General! This is a military installment. The forefront of the world's technology." Lazlo said.

"So what's your rank?"

"That does not concern you." The Lucario answered. At that moment, the radio on his waistband began to crackle.

"Colonel Lazlo. Come in Colonel Lazlo." The Lucario scowled down at it, before touching a button on the side of his headset. A microphone lowered from the side.

"Yes, Colonel Lazlo reporting sir." He said, giving Ganon an evil look.

"The first of our investors are coming in now. Is there anything out of the ordinary or suspicious around the town?"

"No sir. All the Meditites are telling me everything is fine. Both upstairs and down."

"That's good to hear. But I want updates every half hour as to the location of our visitors. They should have got here over an hour ago. So something must have held them up."

"Okay. I'll keep you posted sir."

"Make sure you do. Kenai out."

Lazlo tapped the button on the headset again, causing the microphone to retract back into it's housing.

"So, Colonel Lazlo."

"Think fast." The Lucario shouted, levelling the cannon on his shoulder.

Ganon barely had time to say what, before Lazlo pulled the trigger. Deep in the heart of the tube, a ring of twelve conducting elements became energized by a neutrino charge spreading through the matrix. Each element broke loose a stream of photons that were focused by a crystal into one concentrated beam. The photons compacted into one solid slug, and burst out of the end of the barrel. It hurtled straight at Ganon's head, who barely dodged it. He could feel an icy feeling tingling through the side of his face closest to the shockwave, and realised that they must have been planning this all along. It was an ice cannon, designed to destroy dragons.

Only one thought ran through Ganon's head. Laura. He had to survive this if only to see her again. Besides. It was hardly as though attacking the Lucario now would make things any worse than they were already. Ganon rolled under the hail of bullets as Lazlo lowered it to try and catch him out. He leapt up behind the Lucario, who had barely enough time to spin around before Ganon grabbed his trigger arm and wrenched it behind his back, spinning the now useless cannon across the floor. Ganon didn't notice it dissolve as it entered an area of the room that wasn't lit up. He forced the hapless Pokemon into a wall, holding him there trapped in an arm lock. He grabbed the other arm and twisted it back as well, forcing the Pokemon to its knees.

Immediately, the Lucario jumped back up, flicking him off as though he was little more than an insect. Dusting his combat jacket off, the Lucario walked over to Ganon, and hauled him to his feet, effortlessly despite his weight. Pressing a mug of something into the boys hands, he pulled off his gloves, flinging them into a corner.

"Test over. Projectors off. "

Ganon stood there (barely from the impact the Lucario had inflicted on him) in shock as the metallic decoration of the room faded away, along with the meditites and their equipment. The room now had pale red floral wallpaper, with a plush blue carpet underneath. He'd later come to learn that the whole set-up had been a hologram, but for now, it was plain and simple Magic. The Lucario moved over to the side of the room, where a large pile with a sheet over it had been made prior to the events, which evidently had been the hiding place for the normal furniture as he whipped off the sheet to reveal a sofa and a table stacked on it.

"Sorry for beating you too badly, but pretty much everyone I test leaves with broken bones." Lazlo said as he hefted the table off the sofa, replacing it on the floor. He wandered over to the other side of the room, where another sheet was draped over things that were being kept out of the way, "You can consider yourself almost skilled that you're still concious."

"But this… what the…" Ganon said, still flummoxed by the change in the room. Lazlo laughed slightly as he whipped this sheet off, revealing a chair and a television.

"I volunteered my room as a testing area for anyone Kenai thinks would make a suitable addition to our staff. He reckons you'd make a useful field agent, so I tailored the test for that." He pointed at some metallic prisms in the corners of the room, "My projectors. I write the scenario, they play it out."

"But your gun." Ganon started, looking at where the cannon had been flicked to only to find it absent. "I felt it."

"Psychic field. Plays tricks with your nerves. My gloves did that." He tilted his head towards the discarded gloves in the corner, whilst rummaging between the cushions of his sofa for the television remote which had just fallen down, "Usually, I'd set some underlings the job of handling new guys like you, but, your technique is unique. You fight like a demon, and that's something they can't deal with."

"Should I be pleased or insulted?" Ganon asked,

"Pleased. You will also have a weapons handling course, driving lessons, probably some Human culture... and before that, you have the universal two years as a research scientist. Everyone gets that, and its boring frankly."

"What's science?"

"What's science?! And you expect me to be able to answer that?" He pressed a button on the side of his headset, lowering a microphone, "Hey Moxis. Can you send Mel up please?"

"Sure thing pops!" An eager voice chimed from the radio. Lazlo scowled.

"I've told you before. It's Colonel during your shift. Don't call me pops, dad or anything else like that."

"But Kenai said I could call you pops!"

"Well, I say otherwise. It's not becoming in a young pup like you. You lose your manners, and you'll stop respecting your elders."

"Okay then, _Colonel_. I'll send _Melissa_ right up. Moxis Out." Lazlo removed his hand and looked back at Ganon.

"You can be in your Pokemon form if you want. This room is soundproofed, and the windows are one-way glass. The door is practically unbreakable and locked so that's fine"

"So how is Melissa going to get in?" Ganon said, transforming back into his usual form.

"Just call her Mel."

"She said only her friends could call her Mel. And that I wasn't one."

"Well, she'll warm to you eventually."

"She breathes Ice. I don't think that would be a good thing." Lazlo took another long sip from his cup.

"Yep. Definitely a field agent." He said, nodding slightly, "They always have corny comebacks like that. Kenai was right, as usual. And if I'm right for once, Mel is just outside now."

He threw his arm in a wide gesture, causing the door to open. A strangled yelp came from outside as the Glaceon that was just about to knock was dragged in by a psychic force, and slamming the door behind her. She was put down gently on the third armchair, and she looked at Lazlo.

"How did you know I was there?"

"I could read your Aura."

"That's a load of Tauros shit, and you know it." She said.

"It's not _Tauros shit_ as you so put it. If Kenai accepts it, so should you."

"Idiot…" She mumbled, averting her gaze from Lazlo. Unfortunately, it landed on Ganon, "Well hello!" She said, smoothing a paw through the fur at the side of her head and rearranging the ear into a more amiable position, "Who's this gorgeous creature." Lazlo couldn't help but snigger slightly.

"That, Mel, is Ganon." He announced dramatically. Melissa sweat dropped.

"Okay. Not so gorgeous." She said quietly, her gaze rapidly switching from flirty to steely, "You're that annoying kid that tripped up over me the other day!" She shouted at him. Ganon couldn't move for laughing, so Lazlo continued instead.

"Mel, the reason I brought you up here was because Ganon asked what science is. Would you care to define it please?"

"No! Not for him."

"Shall I rephrase that? Tell Ganon what science is!" He barked at her.

"But," Lazlo was tapping the Colonel insignia on his arm, "Oh fine then. Make yourself comfortable Ganon, because I'm only saying this once, unless _Colonel Asshole_ orders me to again."

Lazlo sneezed into his fist, kicking her leg sharply. Melissa scowled at him briefly, before returning her attention to Ganon.

"For the majority of people around this planet, science is a very simple concept, dealing with mechanics as its primary source of knowledge. A human limit to science is cars, trains, lifts, building, and Pokeballs. All of their knowledge is rudimentary, and there is much that could be refined. Our idea of science is predominantly Biology and refined physics."

"Biology?" Ganon asked, confused by the alien term.

"The mechanics of living organisms, which is infinitely more complicated than human mechanics." Melissa tilted her head slightly to look across to Lazlo, "Didn't Teal say that the nurseries actually taught our level of science?"

Lazlo shook his head back at her, although evidently he was busy listening to something on his radio. Something he didn't like the way he was drumming his fingers against a holster on his hip.

"Idiot." Melissa said, earning her another swift kick from Lazlo.

"The Meditites have seen someone new on the scopes." He said, flicking the microphone out of the way and brushing a thumb over a clear object held in the holster, causing it to take on a blue hue. "Stay here. Both of you. Continue the discussion." And he teleported out. Melissa sighed.

"He's so cool..." She purred affectionately. Ganon raised an eyebrow at her comment, not expecting her to be capable of adoring someone.

"Erm, doesn't he have a wife? I mean he has a child."

"They're divorced, but he won custody of the child because she was off her head on Rare Candies all the time. Anyway, back to the conversation."

"But I didn't think you wanted to talk to me."

"_Well_... you _seem _intelligent enough, and I'm fed up with Kenai being the only other intelligent person who comes above ground. And as you are no doubt aware, he is too intelligent for me to have a good conversation with. You on the other hand are not a complete retard."

"I'll take that as a compliment, rather than as an insult to my intelligence."

"Close, but not complete. Regardless, any other questions?"

"Yes. What was that thing that Lazlo took off with? The see-through thing in the holster."

"Ah ha! My invention, regardless what the patent says. _I_ discovered that every Pokemon attack has a wavelength. That means, that using anything that is capable of generating photons, any Pokemon attack can be synthesised artificially. As a result of that, _I_ could grow crystals that emitted this frequency when excited by a neutrino pulse."

"So what you guys managed to make was a set of Pokemon-move based beam weapons?" Ganon asked. Melissa smirked.

"You catch on fast for an idiot, but no. We only made one." She said. Ignoring yet another idiot remark, Ganon continued.

"One?"

"Well, you could call it three. The Tri-Attack beam, made up of Ice, Fire, and Electricity. Eight types have a direct weakness to one of those three, and there are no Pokemon that have complete resistance to it, making it the perfect choice. However, trying to use all three elements at once had a habit of making it explode, so _I_ placed a filter on it so it can only fire one beam at a time. It runs on a nuclear fusion battery and can fire whichever elemental beam the dial is set to." She said, "If I saw correctly, he flicked it to its ice setting, something that can freeze him solid when it's not me he's annoyed!"

Ganon smiled awkwardly, feeling sorry for Lazlo when he was on the wrong end of Melissa's chain. Without any adequate response, the room immediately fell silent, save for the sounds of a commotion outside. Curious, Ganon moved over to the window, trying to find the cause of the noise, although it took less than a second to see why.

"Err, what does it mean if there are about fifty men outside with red R's on their chests?"

"It means Team Rocket's here."

* * *

Laura woke with a start. She had been dreaming quite happily that she had been sleeping with Ganon. Of course she'd quickly forgotton about only being given 10 minutes. After that she had gotten a little more playful and daring. She looked around and noticed that she was back in her bedroom in the Kids Grid; she hit the floor angrily with one of her clawed fists.

"ARGH! WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE GIVEN ME ANOTHER FIVE MINUTES?!" She screamed at no-one in particular. Martin looked around when she hit the floor with her fist, and was now looking at her with one eyebrow raised.

"Err… Laura? Calm down please… I don't want to get killed here. Just transform into your human form and mouth the words please. Otherwise someone will hear."

Laura didn't hear a word he said, too preoccupied with her own irate anger. She looked back at the Silver Latios amulet around her neck, its empty eyes staring at her blankly. She curled her claws around its neck, as though she could strangle the little eon that had woken her up.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!" She bellowed at it, shaking it and trying to choke it mercilessly. It just sat there in her claws, absolutely unfazed by her attack.

"Laura, why are you trying to throttle an amulet?" Martin asked. He had thankfully been able to put Maria back into her Pokeball shortly before Laura woke up. Laura looked up at him, shooting him a glance filled with cold contempt, although he didn't know it wasn't aimed at him. He just backed away slightly.

"THIS BASTARD KNOCKED ME UNCONCIOUS JUST SO HE COULD TELL ME SOME POINTLESS CRAP, SHOW ME GANON, AND THEN WAKE ME UP JUST AS IT WAS GETTING EXCITING!"

"Err… Please calm down. If it makes it any better, you can find Ganon another time, and then it won't be a dream. You won't get… um… him interrupting you."

That seemed to cheer her up significantly enough to stop her from shouting, although she continued to clutch at the amulet in hatred. An almost cruel idea suddenly popped into her head.

"Hey Martin. Does that soldering iron of yours melt silver?" She asked innocently. The amulets eyes suddenly burst open in shock, revealing two tiny rubies.

"What? No, of course it doesn't. It can't melt anything that has a melting point higher than lead." Martin said back, exasperated by Laura's obsession that this amulet was alive. The amulet looked relieved and closed its eyes again, unnoticed by anyone.

"But it is alive! Its name is Argent."

"That's Latin for silver. It's why silvers elemental symbol is Ar. Now what sort of prank are you trying to pull?"

"But it is alive! It knocked me out earlier when I was gossiping with Maria."

"Well it serves you right for gossiping if that's the case. If it is alive, I bet its male and saving me from some no doubt baseless rumour." Martin finished, walking back to the desk to indicate the conversation was over.

"But but but… but… but…"

"But nothing. Shut up, I'm busy." He turned back to the device he was pulling apart yet again.

"Haven't you finished messing with that yet?" She asked him, slightly annoyed that he wasn't paying any attention to her.

"No. They've used the board I designed, and I put a lot of unnecessary components on. Or unnecessary for the purpose the grid is using them for. Therefore, there is an almost limitless amount of ways I can configure this."

"Fine. Show-off…" She muttered under her breath.

"Hey when did you get so grouchy?"

"Since this git woke me up!" She yelled angrily. Martin shook his head and sighed.

"So you're cranky. If that's the case, why don't you go back to sleep?"

"It's midday!"

"So?"

"I don't want to mess up my sleeping pattern any more than this git has done already!"

"Well you'll have to get used to it. After a brief stint in research, Geraint will be packing you off to wherever you'll be assigned field duties. You're gonna have to sleep whilst you travel, because unless you're lucky and get a residential post, you're not gonna get any sleep whilst you're on your mission." Martin said, chewing on another wire with his gums.

"How long is the research stint?"

"Fwee yurs ere," He spat out the loose wire, "Which is too long. It's only two years back at my place, but at least there it's new stuff so it passes in the blink of an eye. The stuff you'll be facing downstairs will no doubt either be outdated or stolen." He said, barely hiding a smug grin, "Stolen from us would be a safe bet."

Laura rolled her eyes, before continuing to scrutinise the locket. As far as she could tell, it was still just glaring at her with impassive eyes. The amulet had in fact gone back to sleep itself, but she didn't know that.

"Knock knock. There's work to do out here Laura." Geraint yelled through the door, causing Laura to squeak loudly in horror. She transformed back into her human form just as Geraint opened the door. Martin quickly shoved the device in a drawer he kept open next to his work, closing it casually so as not to draw suspicion.

"Hey Laura. You were only designated half an hour to familiarise yourself with Maria. That time is up. If you're going to stay here, which is the only option available to you, you have to work. Being a new recruit, you will be placed in a research position until you learn how this company works."

"Oh! It's a company now is it?" Martin asked sarcastically. Geraint would have ignored him if he'd even bothered to listen in the first place.

"Well, come on Laura. This is pretty much what you'll have to do every day for the next three years."

"Ha! Told you so Laura!"

"Oh shut up you!" She yelled back down at him. Geraint leapt back, screaming.

"OH MY GOD! SHE CAN TALK!"

Laura just stood there stunned. She had spoken in her human form? How was that supposed to happen? She looked down at the Latios amulet that was still around her neck, as though expecting it to electrocute her again. She then looked back over at Geraint, who looked slightly put-out.

"Well that's screwed all your ideas of spending long intimate nights together trying to teach her how to speak. Did you go out especially to buy candles?" Martin teased.

"Why you little…" Geraint started, reaching out to punch him. Martin ducked aside.

"Hey, attacking me will hardly help. It was just a casual question."

"About candles. Try and find a reason for candles that isn't suggestive." Geraint said, trying to keep his cool despite the mud-fish's insistence that he had feelings for this girl. Martin stared at the ceiling for a few moments as though the answer was plastered there.

"Erm… Oh crap. Err…"

"Can't find one? Whatever happened to your smart mouth?" Geraint teased, confident that there was no satisfactory answer. Martin looked back at him and grinned.

"It's still here, unlike yours which is off imagining itself on Laura's." Martin said, smirking. Geraint facefaulted.

"You git! You're supposed to be being subtle!"

"Well, if you're going to accuse me of not being subtle, I might as well not be." Martin finished, "And as a matter of fact, don't you have a job to do? Both of you?"

Geraint scowled at Martin.

"Don't you dare try to tell me what to do. Laura, follow me. Martin, behind her. No talking." And he strode out of the room. Laura looked down at Martin, who was cracking his knuckles, pleased with himself. She turned back and followed Geraint out of the room, Martin chuckling behind her.

"Shut up!" Geraint said, turning back to look at Martin.

"Whoooo! So what are you going to do about it?" Martin taunted, mocking fear. Geraint scowled so much that his eyebrows met, and pulled a remote out of his pocket. He pressed a button on it, and two sentry drones flew in, picking Martin up.

"Wha-?! Hey! Put me down you little-"

"House arrest. Maximum security. Take him away." He ordered the drones. They beeped, and started levitating the prisoner between them down the corridor.

"No!" Laura squeaked, tugging at Geraint's arm "You can't do this! I need him!"

"It's for his own good. I'll only take so much before I snap, and I am this close-" He held his finger and thumb about a centimetre apart, "From doing him serious injury."

"But-"

"Listen." He said. He looked up and down the corridor, making sure that no-one was eavesdropping. He took the remote out again, and another two sentries came, hoisting a pink-haired boy into the air that had been invisible a second ago. Geraint scowled.

"Why are you stalking me?" Geraint asked the boy suspended in mid air. The boy squirmed between the two robots, but remained tight-lipped.

"Hmmm... You can't talk at all. Interesting. Take him away. Keep him separate from the Marshtomp, and don't let him transform back. If he does, freeze him. I don't want Ditto's squelching around the place." The two avian droids obeyed.

"Now. Come on. I need to take you to your station."

"But weren't you trying to tell me something?" Laura asked. Geraint shrugged.

"I've just realised that until you have some technical expertise, whatever I say regarding why I am like I am won't make any sense to you."

"Are you calling me stupid?!" Laura yelled at him, instinctively placing her hands on her hips.

"No! Not at all! Just naïve."

"Naïve?"

"It means you don't know enough to be able to understand what the process entailed. If I told you know, you'd be more confused than you were to start with."

Laura sighed and looked back down at the floor. Geraint took her right hand, bringing it up to get her attention back.

"Laura, we have to go. Come on." He said. She reluctantly followed him as he led her back down the staircase to the main balcony, leading her down another staircase to the main floor she had seen yesterday. Kids were running around everywhere.

"Now keep hold of my hand. It's quite easy to get…" Geraint felt her grip on his hand disappear. He sighed. "Swept away." He finished, turning around to see where she had gone. She was running away from a large block rolling in his direction.

_Oh crap. This is going to get messy_, He thought leaping out of the way of the rolling mass. He looked in through the side to see several kids were trapped inside it, being spun around like socks in a washing machine, although they were having a far better time than those who hadn't been able to outrun it. He pulled a pokeball off his belt, throwing it after the rogue hamster wheel. It burst open to release a Machamp, which promptly took off after it. It sprinted through the wave of destruction in its wake, leaping up onto the top of the wheel. He turned around and bent down onto the surface of the wheel on all sixes, and waited until it revolved to put him in front of it. He pulled his feet out of under him, digging them into the floor, opposing the motion of the rolling wheel. The wheel stopped rolling as the Machamp pulled up in the opposite direction to its roll, bringing the rogue device to a halt. He heard a few loud thumps from inside the cylinder as some kids fell off the roof on the inside. Geraint ran over to his Machamp.

"Good... one. How many... casualties?" He panted.

"Judging by the path, about six, sir. Erm... Nothing too bad, just a few with broken bones, scapes, bruises and one concussion."

"Okay. Take them up to the medico, and I'll get this place sorted out for rebuilding."

"KK sir." The Machamp said, saluting Geraint.

"I told you. Just call me Geraint."

"KK sir." The Machamp said again, before dashing off to pick up one of the injured. He held them in their position with each of his four arms, before jumping up to the next balcony. He ran over to the medics ward, placing the girl carefully on a bed to prevent further injury, before jumping back down to collect another. Geraint turned back to the main group on the floor, and pulled out a Loudred from his belt. The Loudred looked up at him, before pulling a microphone from a holster on his shoulder. Geraint took it, and held it up to his face.

"Okay guys! Everyone get what's left of your projects, and get them up into residential. We'll have the Ribs here in ten minutes, so you guys better not be. I'll issue a new map once it's completed. Keep an eye out on your Codec from about six onwards. Remain off the factory floor until it has been announced that you may return." He said into the microphone, his voice magnified by the Loudred's amplifying ability. He pulled the device away from his face, grimacing.

"Do you ever bother with deodorant?" He asked the Loudred.

"Well sor-ry!" It bellowed at him, putting the microphone back in its holster. Geraint returned the Loudred, before running his hands through his hair to return it to its original style after the Loudred had blasted it into an Elvis quiff. He looked around at the kids around him, picking up pieces of various projects, before noticing his Machamp had come back.

"Shall I call the Ribs, sir?"

"Well I doubt they'll appreciate being called sir."

"Very funny sir."

"Please don't call me sir."

"Sorry S…Sir." The Machamp said. He growled loudly, and slapped his thighs with all four of his arms at once, with the unfortunate effect of knocking him flat on his front from the immense impact.

"I'm sorry sir. I must call you sir, sir."

"Why?"

"Request permission to tell tragic anecdote, sir?" Said the Machamp, saluting again. Geraint rolled his eyes.

"Permission denied." He sighed. The Machamp bowed.

"What are your orders sir?"

"Make the call in twenty minutes. For now, give me a hand getting the room cleared."

"Yes sir." The Machamp said, striding over to the massive wheel, picking it up. Geraint watched as the Pokemon hauled the device over towards it's original housing, before walking over to the central console. He activated one of the consoles at the base.

"Okay… Up you go." He muttered absently, twiddling his fingers over various dials. He looked up at the central monolith, twisted a lever on the underside of the desk, and watched as the pillar retracted into the ceiling. A few of the children that were still picking up pieces of their various projects oohed and aahed at the behemoths ascent. Geraint looked around at them.

"Everyone off the factory floor in thirty seconds." He shouted. Non-one heard him over the monotonous grinding of the pillars hydraulics. He grimaced and brought out the Loudred again. It was shaving its armpits.

"Doo be doo… what?!" It yelled at him. Geraint tentatively held out his hand, and the Loudred reluctantly gave him the microphone.

"EVERYONE OFF THE MAIN FLOOR IN TWENTY SECONDS!" He shouted into the microphone, his voice booming as it echoed around the walls. Several children were physically hurled backwards by the sound wave. Geraint handed the microphone back, and looked up to see the pillar had finished it's ascent, locked into the roof. Geraint walked around into the space between the consoles where the pillar used to reside, and they folded backwards, forming an octagon of consoles around him. He flipped another switch, and two lines of lights running from the edge of the first console he'd used, over to the edge underneath the microphone he'd used to announce Laura yesterday. He returned his Loudred, and hit another button. The cockpit rose up from the ground, pivoted on the end of the section marked by the fluorescent lines. It rose until what used to be the floor was flush with the back wall. The connecting shaft retracted back into the floor, the octagonal cockpit now locked into the balcony. Geraint looked down and saw that there were only two people left on the main floor. "All remaining personnel off the floor. We have Ribs in twenty minutes."

The last two people looked up in horror, before dashing up to the mezzanine floor. "Sir!"

Geraint looked down at the Machamp who had walked back onto the main floor with a huge wrench. He gestured for the Machamp to come up, which did a running leap onto the balcony behind him.

"The Ribs are on their way, sir. "

"Stop calling me sir!"

"Sorry." The Machamp turned around and held his hand over his mouth. "Zuh." The Machamp finished, muffled by his hands.

"Close enough. Can you do me a favour and go find Laura?"

"Which Laura?" Machamp quickly turned around and mumbled zuh, before turning back to face him. "There are at least five Laura's here." The Machamp turned around again. "Zuh."

"She has pretty red hair, and should still be wearing jeans and a red T. There's one Pokeball on her belt."

"Okay then, _Zuh._ I'll go find her." The Machamp looked at Geraint in amazement that he managed to resist saying sir. Geraint smiled and reached out to shake one of the Machamp's hands. Then the Machamp's eyes crossed, and he sneezed "SIR!" Geraint frowned.

"You were doing so well then. Maybe next time you can nail it."

"Okay, _Zuh._" The Machamp said, saluting and walking off. Geraint turned back to his control panel.

"Now where was I… Oh yeah." He slid two dials on each end of the machine, and the lower floor melted into a pool of liquid metal. It divided along the middle, flowing towards the walls, where it ran up them to form two reservoirs on the ceiling. The metal of the walls quickly followed suit, thickening the metal layer on the ceiling. Now the walls and the floor were solid earth. He pulled his remote out of his pockets, and the droids making up the main screen disconnected, flying off somewhere to wait until the Ribs had finished. Geraint picked up a headset from the control panel, putting it on over his head. He took two blue gloves covered in sensors, putting them on, flexing the fingers. All the diagnostics on the readout over his eye said that everything was functioning normally. He checked the clock on the HUD.

"Three, two…"

About fifty Sandshrews burst through the floor of the chamber, spinning in the air before landing nimbly on the cracked ground. Each of them was wearing a similar headset. They formed ranks on the main floor, facing Geraint. He flexed his fingers again.

"Okay guys. We've had major structural damage. We need a completely new design. The open floor plan is too risky, so we need a standard corridor and room arrangement. Please switch your headsets to channel 29." A series of clicks was heard as each Sandshrew twisted a switch on their headsets. They nodded appreciatively as they looked at the blueprints that Geraint was imagining. Every Sandshrew on the floor was a qualified Rebuilder, hence the nickname Ribs. Geraint mentally praised Razor for letting him use psychic field technology, and the Sandshrews below burst into applause as they felt his praise for Razor. And a little whooping.

"Oops. That wasn't supposed to happen. Anyway. Get to work."

The Sandshrews whooped again, and dug into the ground again. The raw earth rippled from the combined efforts of the rodents, before surging up to make the rock flush with the balcony. Geraint checked the progress of the Sandshrews construction through his headset, the psychic field allowing him to see through the eyes of any of the workers. Phase one would take about three hours, after which he'd need to get some sleep.

"Sir!" Geraint sighed as he looked over at the Machamp.

"What is it? Where's Laura?"

"She was the concussed girl." The Machamp finished. Geraint sighed before turning back to where the Ribs were working.

"Oh for goodness sake. It's always the pretty ones that get hurt." He muttered, thinking back to his own girlfriend. The look on her face when he brought Laura in was almost haunting.

* * *

The Rocket Group was making a clear heading towards the Pokemon Centre. At least a third of them were carrying rocket launchers, and every single one had a cluster of grenades on their belts. Clearly, they were expecting some seriously heavy firepower to be used to try and remove them.

"Mel, why are they just being allowed to run in?" Ganon asked. Melissa Jumped up onto the window ledge to get a better view.

"Because they're no threat."Ganon looked back down at the encroaching hoard. They all had body armour of sorts and those without rocket launchers had at least 3 guns each to swap between. Those sort of warriors were defiantely a threat. Melissa just rolled her eyes, and pointed at the ground about fifty metres ahead of the invaders, " There is a reason why we are the best."

Ganon looked at the area of ground Melissa was gesturing to, knowing full well it was no different to any of the surrounding ground. The rocket advance was still moving forwards, with some of the launcher carriers now taking shots at the building itself. Immediately, after the first trigger was pulled, Ganon saw exactly why Melissa knew they weren't a threat.

The Rockets could feel the earth shaking under their boots as they approached the building, but as grunts do with life-threatening situations, they paid it no heed. As the first missile sailed towards the building, a huge slab of dark metal _erupted _from the ground ahead of them, intercepting the projectile and throwing up a barrage of solid rock and earth. The Rocket Grunts immediately stopped in terror at the sudden contraption exploding ahead of them. This proved long enough for the mechanism to swing the appendage forwards, crushing at least thirty of the Grunts in a single crushing movement. Utterly paralysed with fear, the remaining grunts had no chance as the metal was swung back up, and swatted aside the rest, killing them instantly from extreme impact trauma. The last Rocket member standing, just out of reach of its second strike and shaking like a leaf, watched as the machine returned to an upright position, the three segments of it resembling a giant metal finger. Slowly, the end joint turned to point at him, and whilst the man had plenty of time to run, the sheer terror kept him rooted to the spot as it lurched down, crushing him into the ground in less than a second.

"What... in... Astrid's... name... was..."

"Science." Melissa responded simply. "As I said, they were no threat."

"But-" He was cut off as Melissa gave him a particularly cold stare. Cold enough to be painful to him.

"We're the ultimate power on the planet. There is no threat. Ever. If you're inclined to doubt anything you might as well get out."

"I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE BEING SIGNED UP HERE!" Ganon yelled back at her. Immediately, Melissa proved exactly why no-one argued with her. She shouted louder than Krakatoa.

"YOU DON'T GET A CHOICE! YOU HAVE TO CLIMB THE CORPORATE LADDER UNTIL YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH TO CHOOSE ANYTHING!"

"MELISSA!" Lazlo barked from the doorway, the Lucario glaring at her lividly. Melissa leapt off her seat, before immediately bolting past him and tearing through the hallway. Shooting a loathesome glance down the corridor, Lazlo slowly pulled the door closed behind him, before taking the seat she'd just vacated. The pair were silent for several minutes, before Lazlo finally broke the silence.

* * *

The corridors of the Kids Grid base surrounding the main floor were unusually noisy following the accident, something Geraint wasn't particularly happy about. Redesigning a building always involved a lot of paperwork, and he was up to his eyes in the task of filling in all the forms. The bouts of laughter that filtered in through the door were trying his patience though, as he screwed up another piece that the distraction had caused him to mis-write. When someone dared to knock on his door as he finished the last line of the form, he was certainly in the mindset to kill whoever was on the other side. Angrily making his way to the door, he wrenched the handle, preparing to punch away whoever had disturbed him. What he didn't expect was the pristine white uniform of the medical squad, and quickly the motion faltered as the punch lost impetuous. The nurse gave him a sad eye, before quietly delivering the news she'd been sent with. The effect on Geraint was clearly distressing.

"You're kidding me. That can't happen." He whimpered, before belting out of the doorway and heading towards the hospital wing.

* * *

"Your testing is over now, so you should probably be getting back to what the humans expect you to do." Lazlo said quietly, gesturing towards the doorway.

"What do I say about this though?" Ganon said, gesturing the room around them.

"Exactly the same as the rest of us tell him. Nothing."

"That's a bit unfair for him isn't it?"

"I believe so, but it is unfortunately neccessary. He lets us live here, he doesn't question what we do, and he even remembers our birthdays. Few trainers are that considerate, and we owe him for it."

"What's a birthday?" Ganon asked. Lazlo looked at Ganon incredulously.

"How can you not know?!" Lazlo asked. Ganon looked up and pointed at the ceiling.

"We don't have them up there. We just know how old we are, and how long before we got kicked out."

"Kicked out? Sounds a bit harsh." Lazlo said, thinking back to what Teal had said about the matter, their resident expert on the subject.

"Well it is. They have these crazy gargoyles for gatekeepers that open a portal into this world when we're twelve. They literally force us through with almost no warning." Ganon hung his head, "I couldn't even tell Laura that I…"

"A girlfriend?" Lazlo asked, intrigued. Ganon looked back up.

"Well, she was more than a friend."

"Ganon, girlfriend means a girl that you love and care for deeply."

"Oh. Yeah that's an accurate description."

"Well. I _could_ tell you that love is a hollow and meaningless thing to get involved in, but I'm not that cruel. Eddie would consider it a waste of time pining over someone you'll never see again."

"I will see her again!" Ganon yelled at him. Lazlo just nodded.

"I never said you wouldn't, but please let me finish. What I will tell you, rather than what anyone else says, love is the most wonderful feeling you will experience. But you mustn't let it affect your judegment."

"I've been experiencing it for six years. I think I know." Lazlo tilted his head to one side, looking at Ganon through one eye.

"How old are you?"

"Twelve. And three days." Lazlo looked dumbfounded.

"Jeez! You really are head over heels."

"I don't have any heels." Ganon pointed out. Lazlo rolled his head uncertainly.

"Well you know what I mean."

"You seem to know a lot about romance." Ganon said. Lazlo sniggered.

"Well of course. I was in love once." Lazlo suddenly scowled darkly, "But enough about that."

"Did you know that Melissa has a crush on you?" Ganon said trying to lighten the mood. Lazlo grimaced.

"Hmmm... I won't pretend I didn't, but I find it surprising that she revealed that in front of you of all people." Lazlo said. He walked back over to the door and opened it, revealing Kenai about to knock. The Alakazam grunted roughly, and walked in.

"So. What's the verdict Colonel?" Kenai asked.

"Field agent, sir. He held himself well in the turmoil, and has an instinctive grasp over some forms of basic combat. Judging by the mentality analysis, he fights predominantly for love, rather than revenge or simply fun like most recruits."

"Good, exactly what I thought. Compile the rest of the report with a copy of the simulation, and I'll file it where-it'll-never-be looked-at-again-but-has-to-be-kept-in-case-of-legal-problems."

"Very well sir." Lazlo said, bowing as Kenai left. The Lucario turned back to Ganon, who was still stunned. He smirked.

"Well. Private Ganon. Welcome to Razor."

* * *

**About time I got this section repaired, as there's been a few key changes.**


	7. Fleeting Glances

Just for the record, I do not count this as their first meeting, considering neither of them have any wish to stay together. And just so you know, Laura's feelings in this are neutral about boy-Ganon, not loving, nor hating. She's just intrigued. Both of them have too fond memories of each other to even consider anyone else.

Of course, I wasn't intending to have them 'meet' at all, but people may just be reading this to see Ganon and Laura get together. At least this should sate that hunger for those impatient fools that want me to get straight to the point, whilst keeping it in line with how I want the story to turn out. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, yet some people want to take the Christmas cracker approach to love. One massively dissappointing bang and the novelty soon wears off.

_Lateral Ganon._

**# # # Chapter specific notes # # #**

_Italics are still thoughts, but not specifically one person. It's pretty obvious whose they are though._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 7: Fleeting Glances.**

Laura was just coming around on the bed in the Kid Grid's ward. Everywhere she looked was white and blurry, before she realised that she was looking at the world through frosted glass.

"Laura? Wake up Laura." Came a voice from outside, accompanied by a shape of a small blue paw pressing itself against the side of the tank, scratching at the surface. Laura tried to sit up, banging her head on the dome.

"Gnnnnn. What's going on?" She asked dozily. She heard a pneumatic hiss as the pod retracted. Maria was sat on the edge of the bed she was laying on.

"You got hit by the generator wheel. You got concussed."

"What was that thing?" She asked gesturing at the dome.

"That was a medical pod. The Kids Grid uses a technology similar to that used in Pokemon centres. It is designed for humans, although evidently, it works to a lesser extent on you." Laura blinked at Maria, the universal sign for 'Zuh'. Maria rolled her eyes, "Oh, it doesn't matter."

Laura swept her legs over the edge of the bed to get off. As she swung down of the comparatively high ledge, she noticed something.

"Hey. How come you're out? I never opened your Pokeball."

"Oh. That's easy. This guy let me out when we got here." She said, hauling up a silver Latios amulet.

"Oh no. No no no no no."

"Oh yes. Yes yes yes yes yes!" Maria replied. One of the male Pokemon on the ward whooped.

"You go girl!" It shouted. Maria looked back at Laura.

"Can you give me a second?" Laura nodded as the Mudfish walked away. She heard a squeak and a series of loud thumps and cracks before Maria walked back in, "Men. Can't live with them, end of sentence. At least he's already in a hospital so he'll unfortunately pull through."

Laura smirked, before looking back down at the Amulet.

"So. You let my partner out. I consider that a bit rude not asking for my permission."

"Err, Laura? You're talking to an amulet."

"Well you just said that he-"

"I was making that up to tease you. I can come out whenever I want. It was lucky I did, because the doc wanted to put you in a CAT scanner to check for any serious brain damage. He'd have found you out. We'd better leave quickly. I'll go sign you out."

"What did you do to the doc?"

"I just hit him." Laura frowned, looking at the mudfish sceptically, "And I bit him… and almost drowned him."

"Do you regularly attack people?" Maria blushed.

"It's what attracted Martin to me. That reminds me. Where is the big old lump? He should be here."

"Maximum Security." Laura said resentfully. Maria rolled her eyes.

"Did he openly insult Geraint again?" Laura nodded, "Well that was a bit careless. I've always told him his smart mouth will get him into trouble. Anyway. Don't we have somewhere to be? You've been out for about five hours. Geraint will be worried."

"Does he love me?" Laura asked. Maria scoffed, looking around the room.

"I highly doubt it. He's already got a…" Her gaze was drawn to a white sheet draped over one of the beds. Laura looked around as the door banged open as Geraint dashed through, his face white like polished marble.

"Where is she?!" He yelled at the man. As a doctor, he was the only member of staff that wasn't younger than eighteen, but he still quailed under Geraint's open ferocity.

"She… she's under there." He said shakily, pointing over at the bed with a white sheet. Geraint looked over at it, his lower lip trembling very slightly as he approached it.

"Maria, what's happened? Why does Geraint look upset?" Laura asked in a whisper. She watched as Geraint pulled up a chair next to the white sheet, sitting down besides the bed. Maria bowed her head solemnly.

"It's a fatality. A girl died from her injuries despite the best medical care that could be provided. His Machamp lied to him. He tried to protect him from this."

Laura looked back over at Geraint, who had leaned forwards to clutch at the girls hand that was protruding from under the side of the sheet. He leant down onto the edge of the bed, crying softly.

"Isn't there anything we can do for him?" Laura asked, looking back to Maria. The mudfish shook her head.

"He's never had a fatality whilst he's been leading this place. There have been a few near misses, but never an actual fatality. I always thought he'd be able to cope with it, but I wasn't counting on it being her."

"Who's she?" She asked, looking back over at him. The question was quickly answered as he bent down to kiss the girl's hand softly, "Oh."

"That was his girlfriend, Imogen. They were best friends since they were about six. He finally confessed his love to her two years ago and it turned out to be mutual." Maria said quietly. Geraint sobbed loudly, collapsing onto the side of the bed, "Childhood sweethearts I suppose you could call them."

"Childhood… sweethearts…" Laura repeated absently. The term appealed to her for some reason.

"Laura." Geraint called over to her. She looked down at Maria awkwardly, before walking over to him.

"What is it?"

"I need an assistant to help me with a mission I was due to undertake this week."

"Well why don't you take someone with more experience?"

"Laura… To get there in time, I need to leave tonight. Everyone else was otherwise engaged, and as you haven't yet got any projects to work on, you're the only one who's free."

"No. I'm not going on my own with you." Laura said defiantly, turning away and about to walk back to Maria. Geraint touched her on the elbow for her to stop.

"You'll have Maria with you. If you can do this right, I'll knock six months off the research time."

"No deal."

"A year?" Geraint asked carefully. Laura opened her eyes and looked back down at the boy.

"What's the job?" She asked warily. Geraint smiled and pulled up another chair for her.

"Have you ever heard of Cemusem Village?"

* * *

"Private Ganon. As you've come at a very…inopportune time, you can't go straight down to the labs like a normal recruit, because of the demo at the end of the week. That and you've been integrated into the surface family, making it harder for you to get anything done downstairs until you are given trainer status." Lazlo informed Ganon as he led the boy down the corridor to the main floor.

"Trainer status?"

"When you take a Pokemon as a partner and you go off exploring the region, typically to attempt to attain masterdom over Pokemon." Lazlo snorted back a laugh, although the joke was lost on Ganon.

"What's so funny?" He asked. Lazlo sighed.

"Trainers assume that masterdom will cause all Pokemon to obey you without question. Some people really are that gullible. Anyway. With trainer status, the family won't expect you to be around very often… too much to do, too much to see, and all that jazz."

"Jazz?"

"Oh for goodness sake, it's a figure of speech. Basically, you'll be free to work downstairs and after the two years, travel further afield without difficulty. However, as you are not a human, we have to forge all the paperwork that allows you to qualify for the license."

"License?" Ganon asked, stifling a yawn. Lazlo growled loudly, and drove his fists into a plaster wall in desperation, startling Ganon out of his drowsy state.

"I give up with this kid! He doesn't know anything about anything! Melissa!" He yelled down the staircase.

"What? It's 8PM in case you haven't noticed." She called back up the staircase, "Do you expect him to be able to keep up with everything?"

"But he…"

"Just let him greet the guests tomorrow. That's an easy enough job. Just let the dumbass sleep." Melissa answered. Ganon folded his arms sulkily.

"And for a second there I thought she liked me." Lazlo chuckled before pushing Ganon into his room.

"Go to sleep."

"But I'm not-"

"That's an order Private!" Lazlo yelled into the room before slamming the door shut, shaking the dust off the doorframe. Ganon heard the Lucario cursing outside about how he'd wrecked the wall, before it wandered downstairs. A few minutes later, another pair of feet could be heard, followed by a rhythmic scraping of a plastering trowel against the wall, lulling him to sleep.

* * *

"What's so important about this 'Razor' anyway?" Laura asked. Geraint had moved them both to a more secure room for the briefing.

"Razor is working on a highly secretive project regarding the cloning of Pokemon and their further enhancement into perfect fighting specimens. With some modification, it would be capable of working on humans too. Every six months, they have a demonstration of the technology. This demonstration is targeted at the various investment and affiliate companies that have connections with Razor, such as the International Bank of Forina and the Environmental agency of Orre. Those are just two of about fifteen organisations that back this venture, although their patience is waning."

"Why is their patience waning?"

"Because to put it bluntly, they've screwed it up every time. Self-sustaining specimens are beyond their grasp. My predecessor pulled our support from their programme two years ago due to a horrific accident the machine caused."

"How horrific was this accident." Laura asked. Later she would regret asking it.

"Very. The system works by taking a sample from the Pokemon that is to be cloned. Until their third attempt, during which this occurred, the genetic sampler had been open to the hall, rather like a cupboard without a door. There were a series of about twenty telescopic arms which were designed to secure, sedate and take a genetic sample from the Pokemon, before setting it down outside the machine again. During the third trial though, something shorted out in the mechanism, frying the control circuit. The arms lunged out uncontrolled for my predecessor's partner, grabbing it and dragging it into the machine. The Jolteon panicked and sent more electricity into the machine, causing an escalating series of spasms in the arms, eventually ripping the Jolteon into shreds." Geraint finished coldly.

"That's horrible!" Geraint nodded.

"I won't pretend that it wasn't extremely disturbing for those of us who were watching. However it was an educational experience. We now know that Jolteons have a lot more blood than their small frame suggests."

"Too much information!" Laura screamed, holding her hands over her ears.

"Sorry, but that's true. Go up to your room and collect anything you think you'll need. I'll meet you back on the main floor in ten minutes. I just need to send the new maps out and I'll join you."

"And the main floor is that bit which used to be underneath that balcony you brought me in on?"

"Yes, the floor has just risen. You'll get used to it. Ten minutes."

* * *

"Huh?"

Ganon propped himself up on the bed, the plasterer had finished. He could have sworn he heard something move outside. It was the sound of heavy grating, and some low grunting. He got up and walked over to the window, peeking out through the curtains. He looked down to see two Swellows guiding about four Brelooms towards the back of the PokeCentre with a large bowl made from intertwined branches. Ganon opened the window to get a better look.

"Come on! You were supposed to have got this done this morning!" Lomar called over to the lagging Mushroom Pokemon. One of them dropped the corner he was holding to pick his nose. The others followed suit, although not displaying as vulgar habits.

"Well if you'd be nicer 'bout it, then maybe we'd wanna help you a bit more." The nose picker said. Lomar ruffled his feathers indignantly.

"Do you have a death wish? An order is an order. Follow it."

"How 'bout no?"

"How about I roast you?"

"How 'bout- YEEARGH!" The Breloom screamed as Lomar belched a stream of white hot flames directly at it. It jumped about six feet into the air, before running around in little circles trying to extinguish his burning rump. The other Brelooms looked at Lomar in fear before hoisting the nest back onto their shoulders and continuing towards the centre. Ganon raised an eyebrow.

"Well that's one way to get a job done I guess." He mumbled under his breath before going back to sleep.

* * *

"Got everything you need Laura?" Geraint asked as he watched Laura hoist a comparatively small backpack onto her shoulders. She shrugged to balance out the straps. It may have been designed for much smaller arms, but after letting Maria mess about with the straps, Martins backpack fitted much more comfortably.

"Yep. When do we leave?"

"Now." Geraint said, turning back towards the way that he had led Laura into the building. As he approached the vault door, he nodded to a boy in a security uniform besides it, who nodded back and unlocked the door. Laura followed closely behind him, watching as the door shut behind her as she passed it into the transport corridor.

"Another thing you'll need to think of. You'll need to transform into a Typhlosion too."

"Why?" She asked suspiciously. Geraint shrugged his shoulders.

"Pokemon get free transport on trains. It'll be good practice for you to shapeshift into different forms, and as I know the Typhlosion form pretty intimately-" Geraint winced.

"That sounds wrong." Laura said. Geraint nodded.

"Yeah. I only realised that after I said it. As I know the Typhlosion form _well_, I'll know if you've got any of it wrong. Also they're fast enough to catch the train." He finished casually. Laura stopped dead in her tracks.

"We're late?"

"We were late when I was briefing you. The train station is at the land side of town. This is the port side. So-" He stepped back as Laura flashed blue once and was replaced by a Typhlosion with light red, almost pink, fur instead of the navy blue. Geraint gave her a quick look over.

"Yep everything is in the right place. One second." Geraint transformed into his own Typhlosion form, wriggling out of the clothes again. Just as he got the shirt off he noticed that Laura was running towards the end of the corridor on all fours, "Argh! Wait for me!" He called after her, waddling on his back legs trying to put the clothes into his backpack. He swung it over his shoulder before leaning forwards and breaking out in a gallop himself. He caught up with her, running alongside her. The doorway outside opened automatically as they approached, and they dashed into the open night air. Geraint dashed ahead of her slightly to lead her towards the station. As he approached, he slowed his pace slightly to give her a chance to catch up. He stopped in the atrium of the station looking up at the timetable on a screen.

"Oh come on… where's the twenty-thirty six?" He muttered. Laura leaned against a ticket booth trying to catch her breath.

"Platform three! Come on Laura!" He called over to her, grabbing her forepaw to pull her onto her paws. She hobbled after him quickly as he ran up over a bridge to the relevant platform. He stopped in front of the open door of a train that was sat at the platform, holding an arm out pointing into the train.

"After you." He said. Laura gave him a seething look before stepping up onto the train right in front of Geraint's nose. He sniffled slightly instinctively.

_She smells nice…_  
What the hell am I thinking?!  
_Nothing. She just smells nice._  
And what is that supposed to mean?!  
_Nothing. I thought Imogen smelled nice too._  
Good God. And I've got to put up with this for a weekend?!  
_It's a nice smell. It's not as though she's a Koffing.  
_Look, I'm human, she's not. It won't work.  
_Tell that to a mirror Einstein._

Geraint shook his head to clear up his thoughts before boarding the train after her. She was standing near the door looking around for where to sit. Geraint tapped her on the shoulder, and pointed over towards a compartment to the left. He led Laura over to it, and ushered her inside. He curled up on one side of seats, and Laura mimicked him on the other side of the compartment.

"You may as well get some sleep. It's a two hour train to Alanus, and then another three until Cemusem on Monday morning. However we need to stop at Alanus for Saturday and Sunday since there aren't any trains to Cemusem over the weekend."

"There's no way I'm-" She was cut off as Geraint began snoring from the other seat. Laura scowled and settled down to try and sleep herself. She felt the train start moving underneath her as she slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

**Three days later: Monday Afternoon, February 3rd**

"Anyone else yet, Ganon?" Melissa asked the boy manning the counter that day. He was still sitting there doodling on a piece of paper, and didn't hear her. She blew cold air at his leg, instantly startling him out of his reverie.

"Please don't do that! It's cold!" Ganon whimpered, rubbing his leg to warm it back up, a little trick Lazlo had told him when Melissa had first used this tactic, "Can I go get a drink at least? I haven't had anything since breakfast."

"And you didn't even get that because you blew it up again. I suppose you'd better, but come back here straight afterwards. I'll cover for you for a few minutes."

"Ok. Thanks Mel." Ganon said. Melissa gave him an evil eye, and the air around her shimmered as a frigid haze.

"It's Melissa."

"Okay! Sorry Melissa." Ganon said before wandering into the backroom. Melissa sat on the desk, looking at the piece of paper Ganon had been doodling on. The image resembled a red dragon that Melissa knew. A Latias, although rather rudimentary. The bell above the door tinkled as a pair of Typhlosions walked in, one blue and one pink. Melissa noticed that they seemed to be arguing over something.

"And that was an accident?!" Laura was yelling at Geraint.

"Hey! I just sneezed! I wasn't trying to set it on fire! Now be quiet, we're here." Geraint walked up to the counter, and flipped up resting his forepaws on the desk, whilst Laura walked over to one side of the hall to watch a fish tank, "Hi there gorgeous." Geraint asked the ice type casually. Melissa growled angrily.

"Out. Both of you."

"Now that's just specieist."

"We don't have any rooms left. We're fully-"

"Melissa!" Ganon called back from the other room. Laura looked up suddenly from a Magikarp that was swimming in circles. Melissa growled again.

"What is it?"

"The Johto League has just cancelled their reservation." He said. Laura wandered back to stand next to Geraint, just as Ganon walked back in with a glass of orange juice. Laura stared at him, her mouth dropping open. She couldn't explain why, but she felt strangely drawn to him. She shook her head. It was nothing. Ganon took a sip from the glass.

"Ah hem." Melissa coughed from behind him, "Don't you have a job to do?"

"Huh?" Ganon said stupidly, "Oh yeah. Right right… Welcome to the Cemusem Pokemon Centre. How may I help you?" He finished, addressing the navy Typhlosion. Geraint leaned on the counter, and Melissa watched him carefully.

"Thank you. We'd like to book a room for the next three days." He said. Laura leaned forwards to look at a sheet of paper on the desk which looked as though it had been doodled on. She spotted a vague red shape before Melissa quickly put a paw over the image, dragging it back off the edge of the counter.

"And what is the nature of your visit?" Ganon asked, trying to subtly read a list of questions from a sheet under the desk.

"Business. We're here on an investment opportunity."

That fitted the code words Ganon had been told to accept so far, and had heard for the last three days from various customers.

"Have you stayed with us before?"

"Naturally."

Just one more question left, and the decider.

"Well, that's pretty much everything. By the way, have you seen this Pokemon anywhere? We have been trying to name him so we can get in touch with his family about his situation." Ganon said, gesturing to a Missing poster on a partition between the main desk and the now defunct Cable Club. It depicted an accurate picture of Martin as a Mudkip. The name was indeed missing from the poster. Geraint shook his head.

"Nope. Never seen him before in my life." He lied.

"Oh. Sorry you couldn't be of more help Geraint." Ganon said, pressing a recessed button under the counter. Everyone else who was part of the investors could identify him as Martin. Guilty as charged.

"Anytime." Geraint said, waving it off. It never occurred to him he hadn't told Ganon his name.

"Shall I show you to your room, or shall I leave it to Kenai?" Ganon said, walking around the counter. Geraint's eyes bulged at the mention of Kenai. He spun around and the Alakazam grabbed him between the shoulder amd the nape of his neck, rendering him powerless.

"Nice of you to drop in Geraint. At arms!" Kenai called over his shoulder. Four Lucarios broke out of the abandoned Cable club area, each wielding small hand-cannons connected to a tank on their back. They encircled Geraint, each pointing their weapon at him. Kenai retained his grip on Geraint's shoulder, looking over at Ganon, and tilting his head in the direction of the pink Typhlosion, who seemed to have frozen in panic at four cannons being pointed at them.

_Get her out of the middle._ Kenai told him telepathically. Nodding once, Ganon rushed in quickly and pulled Laura out of the line of fire, dragging her back to the counter. She looked up into Ganon's face. He looked back at her briefly before turning back to watch Kenai with Geraint.

"Geraint. The Kids Grid forfeited their involvement with this project since the Jolteon incident. What makes you think we'll accept you back now?" Kenai said, inspecting the Typhlosion's face carefully. Geraint remained tight lipped.

"What are they doing?" Laura asked Ganon. He remained just as silent.

"Fine, if you aren't going to co-operate. Fire at will." Kenai said, teleporting out of the line of fire. Geraint used the second of freedom granted to him to lash out with a fire spin, intending to melt the Lucarios, but as soon as the flame met what the guards were firing at him, the flare spluttered and died.

"Wha-" was all Geraint could say, before he was encased in fire retardant foam. The flames on the nape of his neck were extinguished, and the Lucarios readjusted their 'weapons' so they turned off. Kenai looked at the block of foam encasing Geraint, before turning to face a corner of the ceiling.

"And that is our latest development of our fire extinguishing solvent. As you can see, the organism is still capable of breathing through the porous network of the foam that envelops the target, and all the other life processes remain in perfect order. Ideal implementations of this technology would be…" Kenai continuing rambling on in this vein for about five more minutes before a green light winked in the corner. He turned back around to face the block of foam with a small smirk on his face. The Lucarios bowed and wandered back into the Cable club reception. A small Riolu jumped out with a vacuum cleaner, standing in front of Kenai awaiting an order.

"Okay Moxis, you can let him out."

"KK boss." The Riolu said before pouncing onto the foam block. He swept across the foam block in long arcs, revealing strips of navy fur. Within seconds, Geraint was free again, and was naturally absolutely seething. The angry flames flared on his back again, and he leapt for Kenai's throat. Kenai sighed and held the rogue Typhlosion in the air with Psychic, before wandering up to Ganon.

"Take your new friend up to the free room. I'll send Geraint up later."

"What do you mean new friend?"

"Haven't you noticed how tightly she's clinging onto you?" Kenai said, pointing at the pink Typhlosion. Ganon looked down at her. Her arms were indeed wrapped around his chest tightly, and she seemed to be terrified. Kenai clicked his fingers in front of Ganon's face.

"Pay attention. Obviously Geraint just picked up some random Typhlosion to try and make them look like a couple to avoid suspicion. Naturally she'll be traumatised."

"Which one's the normal colour?"

"The navy fur, although he isn't a Typhlosion. He's a human."

"What?!"

"Just get her out of here. She doesn't need to see this."

Ganon nodded, before trying to get Laura's attention again. He nudged her gently in the side several times, until she quickly opened her eyes. She looked up at Ganon's face, then at her own arms around him. She withdrew them quickly, then looked away blushing. Ganon smiled softly at her, before standing up.

"I'll take you to your room now. If you could follow me please." Ganon said courteously. He turned around on his heels and strode over to the stairway. Laura followed after him as he led her up three flights of stairs, and down a short corridor to a room. Ganon opened the door and ushered her gently inside.

"If there's anything you need, just find me." Ganon said as he began to shut the door behind him.

"Wait!" She cried out after him. Ganon stopped the door just short of closed.

"What is it?" He asked. Laura looked down at the quilt, feeling slightly embarrassed by her sudden outburst.

"Could you… wait with me… for just a little while?"

"Excuse me?"

"Could you… maybe… stay?" She said, looking at Ganon hopefully. She needed to talk to someone, and Geraint had taken her bag to look like a gentleman.

"Erm…" Ganon fidgeted awkwardly with his fingers, "I…"

"IDIOT BOY!" Melissa yelled from outside the doorway. Ganon looked around quickly, shooting an apologetic look at Laura, before dashing off to answer.

* * *

Geraint flailed around in mid-air as Kenai paced around him.

"Let me down now you little-"

"Calling me names is hardly going to make me want to let you down. Return to your normal form and calm down. The hormones are getting ahead of you."

"I'll give you hormones you-"

"Oh for goodness sake I'll have to do it myself." Kenai said as he mentally probed through Geraint's consciousness. He looked around briefly through his medulla oblongata, and found the control over his transformation. He flicked the psychological switch and watched as Geraint's fur shrank back to reveal the naked human again. Kenai grimaced and took off his lab coat, putting it on Geraint.

"I'm nude now. I hope you're happy." Kenai said annoyed.

"I've got my clothes in my backpack. Shall I put them on?"

"What sort of stupid question is that? A human asking whether or not to put clothes on? You've been in the Pokemon form for far too long. You've got complacent with nakedness." Kenai muttered as the human extracted his jeans and T-shirt from his bag and put them on under the cover of Kenai's lab coat. He handed the article of clothing back to the Alakazam once he'd finished, who grimaced as he took it back.

"This is going to need a wash…" He said, walking behind the counter and pulling another lab coat off a rack. He pushed the old one down a laundry chute, and put on the new coat.

"Anyway Geraint. Sorry about testing out the foam on you, but our investors required a demonstration of the product working before they'd actually invest. From what Lazlo has told me, your performance was exemplary."

"But he hasn't-"

"It's called telepathy you moron."

Geraint shrugged.

"How effective is that foam?" He asked, pointing at some of the residue on the floor.

"For the purposes you have in mind, enough, although it should really be used for putting out fires rather than trapping people that annoy you." Kenai added, giving Geraint an evil eye.

"I can't lie to a psychic can I?" Geraint said. Kenai shook his head.

"Can we take this conversation to my office? It's more secure."

"Of course. Lead the way."

* * *

"Ganon, what do you think you were doing with her?" Melissa hissed in his ear. Ganon was sat down in his own room with a toolkit and a box of various components. He was due to have a lesson about what he'd be working with in the Underground Labs.

"She invited me in. She seemed lonely, so I decided it would be nice to comfort her."

"Well that's no excuse. You need to maintain discipline at all times. Don't forget that I won't hesitate to enforce that discipline."

"And whenever you're ready." A small voice said from the door. Ganon looked around to see what looked similar to a miniature version of Lazlo stood in the doorway.

"Finally. Tell me when you've finished Moxis."

"Will do Mel." Moxis said. Ganon looked affronted.

"You can call her Mel?" He asked him. Melissa scowled at Ganon darkly.

"It's Melissa to you." She said before walking out of the room. Moxis sat down on a chair and opened the toolbox.

"It'll pass. Now chop chop. I'm here to teach you what these are, and how to solder them correctly. Now this is a transistor…"

* * *

"So who's your guinea pig this time for the cloning machine?" Geraint asked. Kenai gestured for Geraint to follow him again, leading him towards a lower section of the labs.

"We've made a conclusion from our last experiment, and further analysis of the schematics. The clones weren't surviving because they were too weak."

"That's pretty obvious isn't it." Geraint said smugly. Kenai turned around and glared at him.

"It's not that simple moron. A lot of compromises have to be made in science. There is no such thing as a perfect-"

"Kenai, don't lecture me on science. I did enough of that before I became a field agent."

"Impatient fool. I'll do what I like. There is no such thing as a perfect solution. For this project, it's a very fine line."

"So who is this new donor?!" Geraint yelled, anxious to get to the point.

"Follow me."

"I'm already following you!"

"Then follow faster. Lazlo's keeping the guests occupied with a shoe that fits any size of foot."

"What?"

"Non-dimensional space on the inside. Hurry up." Kenai said, breaking into the equivalent of a run. He rose a few inches off the floor and glided over the surface like a figure skater, without the camp posing. Geraint ran after him towards the guards compound.

* * *

"No Ganon! That's a-" Moxis flinched away as a bright flash of electricity flowed through the component in Ganon's hands, frying them. Moxis pulled the plug out of the socket and looked at a now slightly more burnt Ganon.

"A thermo-dynamo coil..." Moxis said, clasping his forehead in his paw. Ganon coughed out a cloud of soot.

"Okay…" He coughed again, "I'll keep an eye out for those."

"At this rate it'll _take _your eye out."

* * *

Geraint peered through a sheet of reinforced glass into a room filled with various angular white blocks, and a Gallade wandering through the room wearing a helmet

"He's in there?"

"He's our best guard, and genetically a good specimen. If only his personality were a little more normal…" Kenai said, watching the Gallade strafe around a corner, weapon cocked.

"Normal?" Geraint asked, looking at the display. According to the screen, Kotor was being simulated as being in a bustling city, civilians and armed mercenaries appearing out of the alleys to the sides. His score so far said that he'd shot every mercenary, and let every civilian live. Perfect marks. Another round of sim-gunfire rang through the hall.

"That's incredible. He locked onto and shot all the targets at the same time. Even I can't do that."

"And since when have you been a good marksman?" Kenai said. Geraint growled.

The Gallade looked at the scene in front of him now, a busy market place crowded with civilians. He smiled as the simulated noise of machine gun fire punctuated the air.

"Kotor! Do it seriously!" A technician yelled into the training room.

"Shit…" He said, throwing off the VR helmet, "What the hell's the point of shooting at stuff that doesn't scream or bleed?!" He yelled, waving the training gun in the air above his head in anger, "This is stupid! Let me shoot people! Real people!"

The technician growled in frustration.

"I see…" Geraint said slowly. Kenai nodded.

"In tag matches, he wins hands down against the other guards."

"Except Lazlo." Geraint pointed out. Kenai nodded.

"Yes… Except Lazlo…" He said slowly.

* * *

"Focus… focus…" Moxis kept saying as Ganon tried manipulating a soldering iron. Ganon moved the tip of the tool closer to a circuit board he was supposed to be putting together, and pushed it straight through. Moxis sighed as he heard it snap, and he threw the remains onto an increasing pile of broken pieces.

"So survival skills you pick up instantly. Skills you'd actually need, you don't stand a chance."

"It's not my fault! I'm just really jittery all of a sudden. It's as though-" Ganon turned around to spot a Typhlosion in the doorway looking at him, "Thought so."

Laura jolted in surprise, running back down the corridor. Ganon grunted before continuing working, his hand now much steadier. Moxis watched for a while, keeping the live wires away from Ganon as he seemed to insist on electrocuting himself on a regular basis.

"Wrong… Again. Red goes to Positive, black to Neutral." He said, picking something out of his claws. Ganon groaned and put the soldering iron down.

"I'm too bored to do this. What's the point?"

"It's integral to your role as a scientist. Even when you're a field agent, it can come in handy."

"I can't see how poking wires around with a hot stick is going to be useful." Ganon said, walking back over to sit on his bed. Moxis glowered at him.

"You know the Mudkip on the poster downstairs?"

"What, Martin? What's so special about him and soldering irons?"

"Long story."

* * *

Martin looked up from his holding cell in the Kids Grid Jail.

"Was someone just talking about me?" He asked the guards. They shook their heads at him.

* * *

"How the-"

"Ganon, I thought I just explained how he did it. But you're hopeless. I'm ending the lesson whilst there's still something left intact."

Moxis picked up what was left of the soldering kit, namely the iron itself and a reel of wire, before walking straight out of the room, almost crashing into a Typhlosion walking the other way. Laura deftly sidestepped past the Riolu, but he caught her on the arm.

"Guests are not permitted in the residential area. Come back downstairs please."

"But-"

"No buts." Moxis said, leading her away from Ganon's room.

"But that boy said to find him if I needed anything."

"We all say that. It means find one of us, not specifically him. What's the problem?"

"Well, I'm bored and I was hoping he could have shown me around town."

"Well he's not available for such a trip. What is your interest in him anyway?" Moxis asked warily.

"Nothing." She said innocently. And it was true, she was just thankful for him getting her out of the way earlier. Moxis hummed sceptically.

"Here's some advice. Get a Pokemon boyfriend. Humans are off limits."

"It's not like that!" She protested, "It's just… I supposed he'd be the least eye-catching. I mean, I do get a lot of strange looks, you know, being a pink Typhlosion." She laughed slightly as though it was absurd that Typhlosions could be pink. Moxis didn't buy it.

"Hmmm… Who did you come in with? Geraint wasn't it."

"Yes."

"Alright. Just wait for a while, and I'll see what I can do."

* * *

"This is stupid. I'm done with this shit." Kotor muttered as he strode into the room Geraint had just been watching him from, cradling his head where the helmet had been rubbing.

"You're… incredible." Geraint said in amazement, "Where did you learn to shoot like that?"

"Don't ask stupid questions." He answered, suddenly wishing that he had a real gun on him to gun down the annoying child. Kenai stepped forwards, sensing his intentions.

"Kotor. Are you ready to produce a DNA sample yet?" He asked calmly. The Gallade leapt backwards.

"There's no way you're jabbing another needle in my arm!" He yelled defensively, clutching his left forearm, "I'm not your lab-rat."

"But you are in my employ, therefore you will perform all the duties required of you. Unless of course you want your contract terminated, and all the privileges that come with it." Kenai said, locking his gaze with the Gallade. Kotor bristled.

"You… so it comes to blackmail."

"It only came to what you made it. Had you been willingly co-operative, it wouldn't have come to this."

Kotor scratched his chin, thinking carefully about his non-existent options.

"Fine. But knock me out first."

"Punch to the face or hypnosis? Which-" Kenai began.

"Hypnosis." Kotor interrupted angrily.

"Very well. Look into my eyes." Kenai said. The Gallade obeyed, but noticed there was nothing unusual about Kenai's eyes.

"What sort of stunt are you trying to-" The Gallade was knocked to the floor as Kenai's fist slammed into his jaw. Geraint winced.

"Was that really necessary?"

"Well what would you have done? Let him walk all over you?" Kenai answered, the barest hint of a smile playing over his face, "I was going to ask him which one he thought was the wusses option. He was going to get punched anyway." A quiet beeping sound started chiming somewhere in the room.

"What's that sound?" Geraint asked looking for the source. Kenai didn't seem to have noticed.

"What sound?"

"That beeping." Geraint looked around, before noticing a light on Kenai's pocket, "It's your radio."

"Damn. I thought I turned this off." He plucked the radio out of his pocket, putting it to his ear, "What is it?"

"Kenai, you know the pink Typhlosion that came in with Geraint?" Moxis said on the radio. Geraint looked up with apprehension.

"Not personally, but I know of her existence. What of it?"

"She's bored, and she wants to go around the town. Specifically with him." Moxis said. Geraint beamed.

"I'm avail-"

"You're not the only male in this building Geraint. Get a hold of your ego before it breaks something." Kenai growled, before holding the radio back up, "Well what's wrong with that?"

"Well, nothing, but-"

"Then let her go with him." Kenai said angrily, "Keep the line clear for important transmissions."

He snapped the radio closed, and turned back to Geraint, "Now. Where were we?"

"Blood sample."

"That was a rheatorical question." Kenai said, rolling his eyes.

* * *

Sorry there wasn't a flashback from the nursery, but there wasn't a point when anyone was asleep to give that window of opportunity. I had to make do with Ganon doodling instead. This is the first instance where I skip a few days. At some point in the near future, I'll skip a few months.


	8. Suspicious Minds

# # # Chapter Specific Notes # # #

**Bold type is an e-mail**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Suspicious Minds**

Ganon was sat at the desk in his room, looking at each of the objects he'd broken during his lesson earlier. He picked one of them up, and yelped as it cut into his finger.

"Won't be trying that again in a hurry…" He mumbled, transforming back into his Latios form so he could heal the wound. He looked back at the rest of the pile, before dismissing it as too troublesome. He transformed back into a human and leant back on his bed. For all the work that he'd had to do, and more training promised afterwards, even the Nursery was looking inviting to him now. At least there he always had something easy to do, even if it was being the punch bag. He looked absently out of the window. Darkness had already fallen, so he might as well fall asleep. He closed his eyes and fell into what he hoped would be dreamless slumber. Again, luck deserted him.

- - - - - -

"Hey Twiggy!" One of the other Latios yelled at him. Twiggy was one of his nicknames to the other inmates because of his characteristic lack of bulk around the middle. The one that had addressed him was technically four years Ganon's junior, but he was still bigger than Ganon himself was. His other names included Runt, Squirt, and 'Oi you'. He looked around at the oncoming Eon in a half-hearted way.

"So what is it now? Fed up with beating up some other guy?"

"Yep. Your turn now Twiggy." The younger boy shouted maliciously, before Ganon was set on by about six other Latios. He didn't even feel the blows anymore, so he just sat there and waited for them to get bored. Should only be another six hours.

Ganon looked up suddenly when he realised he could see light from above only a matter of seconds after they'd set upon him. The other boys were lining up quietly against a wall, and Ganon suddenly realised that a tutor must have arrived. He looked around to see that one of them had turned up, the oldest one of them in fact, and the most respected. Rumour had it that Lombard was over ten thousand years old, and was there when the first Dream Mentors left to the Astral Plane. Ganon looked up into Lombard's face pitifully, although he was hardly expecting any mercy. Lombard looked down at him, and smirked, before turning to address the boys that were trying to edge subtly away from him.

"I didn't see anything. You may continue your games." He said casually, watching as the other Latios's bore down on Ganon again. The ancient Eon didn't bother hiding his grin as the youngsters battered and bruised the runt of the nursery.

* * *

Laura was sat waiting in the reception hall, watching the Magikarp in the tank when she heard movement behind her. She spun around to see Moxis wander into the room. She looked at him expectantly, causing him to glance over.

"Sorry, but he's asleep now." He said, gesturing to the wall, "Something must really be holding Kenai up if he forgot what time it is. There's no way you could go out when it's this dark."

She looked up at the clock mounted to the top of the wall. She couldn't read clocks herself, and had always relied on Maria up to this point.

"What time does that say? I can't read human." She made up. Moxis sighed exasperatedly.

"It says its nine-forty-five. That's the evening. It's when the sun isn't in the sky anymore." He said in insulting baby talk. She scowled, but she'd learnt at the hotel in Alanus when she tried to roast Geraint back that she couldn't use fire. She sulked and turned away from him, her legs over the side of the bench.

"You really didn't need to be like that…" She said huffily. Moxis tilted his head to one side. He had to admit she annoyed him, but she was technically a paying customer.

"Well… okay then. Should I show you to your room then?" He offered kindly. She looked back over at him, and snorted.

"I can find my own way back." She said adamantly. Moxis sighed, and held up a shiny piece of metal.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice miss. You'll need your key."

"Well hand it over and I'll go up when I'm ready."

"Perhaps I should inform you then that there are no entertainment facilities in this Pokemon Centre. But feel free to stay down here though, I'll wait for you." He finished, wandering behind the counter and sitting down. He would have also said that she didn't have any pockets, but that was just asking for trouble. He pulled out a newspaper from under the desk and sat about pondering over the puzzle page.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye, and smiled to herself as she saw the Riolu glance up at her occasionally. She insisted she would endure for as long as it would take.

* * *

Moxis glanced at her again and thought he was finally up against a tough contender. He'd never met his match before in Sleep Chicken, although only five minutes later, he realised that he had been deprived of a challenge yet again as she drifted off to sleep and fell off the bench. He shook his head and wheeled over a stretcher to carry her to her room. She was awkward to haul onto it, considering she was about three times bigger than him, but it wasn't an overly difficult task, and she was laid in her bed seemingly a matter of seconds since Moxis had picked her up.

* * *

A Gallade was slowly regaining consciousness in a room heavily reminiscent of a hospital operating theatre, a thick bandage tied roughly around its left forearm. He pulled himself upright on the bed, and clutched his head from the sudden disorientation that hit him like a proverbial ton of bricks. His vision was blurred, and unconsciousness was threatening to claim him again.

"Open your eyes slowly." Said a Chansey, a tad unnecessarily, rifling through some X-ray printouts facing away from the bed Kotor was resting on. He let himself drop back onto the bed with a heavy thump and took a series of deep breaths. He looked to the opposite side of the room, where a small vial of his blood was resting in a reinforced container. It was a dark shade of green, so nothing out of the ordinary there... And the reinforcing was hardly surprising either considering his own nature.

"You're okay now, just calm down." The Chansey said calmly as she walked up towards the bed, but remaining out of arms reach, which proved to be a wise decision as he swiped at her with one of his leaf blades.

"Then let me out of here then, dammit!" He said, jumping back up and sitting on the edge of the bed. He felt his head spinning, and collapsed to the floor. The Chansey tutted, and would have helped him up if he wouldn't do it again. But he was too proud to. She wandered back to the X-rays, and clipped them up onto a light box.

"You really should rest. You've just undergone very extensive surgery." She said mildly, turning back to see the Gallade hobble up, then collapsing again. She sighed and picked him up, dumping him unceremoniously back on the bed, and pulling the guard up usually reserved to stop Moxis escaping when he needed various vaccinations. It was a mark of shame for the warrior, and he quietened down trying not to make matters worse. There were other things that were used to keep the children restrained, and he didn't want to go anywhere near them.

"What was wrong with me, Carol?" Kotor asked; his now docile voice completely out of character. The nurse smiled gently like a mother, and pointed out a section of his skull on an X-ray.

"Not much. Just a broken jaw. Nothing I can't fix up easily."

Kotor rubbed the side of his jaw where Kenai had hit him. It was still numb.

"I wouldn't recommend trying to eat for a while, but you're free to leave now." She said, filing the X-rays into a drawer. The Gallade rolled his eyes, and looked at the drawer.

"I presume that's my report finished with then." He said sarcastically. Carol looked over at him chidingly, and she seemed to pull a syringe out of mid-air.

"Then get out of here before I add to it by playing pins and needles." She said warningly. He dashed out of the room so fast it left an image of himself hanging in the air for a split second.

* * *

Laura rolled over in her sleep on the bed, and sighed out a name very quietly in her dream state.

"Ganon…" She mumbled absently, unnoticed due to the soundproofed nature of the room, "What happened to you?"

Every movement the Latios made on the other side of the wall seemed to cause cracking sounds to snip through the air.

"I got Jumped." He said mournfully, accompanied by more snaps. He took a breath through clenched teeth at a particularly loud crack. Laura winced as well.

"How many?" She asked, because judging by the amount of cracks, at least half a dozen must have piled on him.

"Six I think." He said. Laura tutted gently.

"So you got off gently then." She said, trying to keep as still as possible.

"Yeah. I think most of the rest of them were scared off beforehand by seeing Lombard there."

"Did he do anything to stop them?"

"Of course not."

Laura nodded appreciatively. On both sides, the tutors were indifferent to bullying, in or out of lessons. She knew first-hand that some of them even took part, although being much older and supposedly wiser, they did nothing more than jeer. But their taunts cut deeper and were more long-lasting than the youngsters. They'd both come to the conclusion it was the centuries of practice they must have had. She leant onto her left side, and winced as a sharp jolt of pain coursed through her arm, joints cracking in a similar way to Ganon, but evidently much more serious.

"What was that?" Ganon asked immediately, hearing her sharp gasp "Did they jump you?"

"No, no. It's nothing serious." She said, adjusting a makeshift bandage she'd put over a particularly large area of swelling. Ganon growled deeply.

"Don't lie. I can tell you're hurt badly. How many?"

"Only three." She lied quickly, looking away from the wall in shame.

"Laura…"

"What?"

"You're doing it again. I'm worried about you. That sounds much worse than just three. How many?" He asked her passionately. She mumbled something in response softly, "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Thirteen." She said mournfully, and Ganon took a sharp intake of breath.

"Holy… Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I wrapped a piece of cloth around the bad areas, and most of the pain is gone."

"Most?" Ganon asked tenderly. Laura sighed to herself at the gesture.

"Well, it's fine now. It was just a little pain in the chest, but it just disappeared about a second ago." She purred softly.

"That's the sternum. It does that." Ganon said calmly. Laura looked up in shock.

"Ganon?!"

"What?" He called back. The boy was absolutely clueless sometimes.

* * *

As soon as Kotor was out of earshot of the wards, he slowed down slightly, and pulled his radio out. There was a light crackle of static, but no-one on the line. They must have all gone to sleep, he realised. He stretched his arms and yawned widely, before wandering aimlessly through the corridors. His own quarters were just below the surface of the ground, but the hospital wing that he was taken to earlier was a few hundred metres lower on level thirty. Now why they couldn't have taken him to a more convenient floor…

"Because we could both use the walk." Kenai said, wandering up the corridor slowly from behind him. Kotor spun around quickly, lashing out instinctively with a leaf blade. Kenai threw his right arm up ahead of him, catching the blade on the back of his forearm. A brief spark of energy shot off from the point of contact, but the short fur underneath was hardly moved. Kotor frowned.

"You really do love your Barriers don't you?" He said irritably. Kenai nodded and began walking along the corridor, gesturing for the Gallade to follow him. They approached a lift, and Kenai instructed it to take them to just below the surface.

"They were my speciality during the war. Saved our platoon dozens of times."

"Oh not this shit again. You do know I still owe you for punching me in the face."

"Are you trying to suggest it actually _hurt_?" Kenai said, raising one bushy eyebrow.

"If it didn't hurt, I wouldn't have been knocked out, you imbecile." He retorted angrily, but restrained himself from hitting Kenai again. The lift dinged, and they both stepped out. Kotor followed as the elder lead him through a long series of doorways and corridors, before Kenai pausing before a reinforced steel portal. He turned back and looked gravely at him.

"We need a word about your salary." He said, pulling open the door and ushering the Gallade into his office. For the first time in his life, Kotor was hesitant.

"Up or down?" He asked warily. Kenai laughed once.

"What do you think?"

Kotor paused for probably about thirty seconds, before walking through the doorway.

* * *

Ganon woke up slowly. It wasn't exactly the nicest dream he'd had, but he felt more comfortable in the bed than he ever had done before. Then it dawned on him. For some reason, he'd managed to sleep the entire night in his human form without realising it. He praised himself mentally for being able to hold the deception for so long, before transforming back into an Eon to stretch his wings and crack his joints.

Immediately, his body was wracked with cramps. Pain surged through each muscle, devouring every last myofibril of his frame. He convulsed painfully, his back arching ridiculously as he writhed on the floor. He screeched through a locked jaw, somehow attracting the attention of Lazlo. The Lucario took one look at him, before teleporting down into the medical backroom. He nudged the sleeping form of Melissa on the blue silk beanbag she slept on, quickly waking her up. She hissed at the sudden intrusion until her eyesight cleared up. Then she noticed it was Lazlo, and turned on the charm.

"Oh! Lazlo. You shouldn't have to see me like this. My morning fur looks terrible." She said as she began to groom herself. Lazlo put a paw on hers, stopping her.

"That's not what I'm down here for. Ganon is having major cramps, and he needs immediate treatment."

"How big a dosage?" Melissa asked. Lazlo frowned, not familiar with the actual quantities required, but then again, he did have a good idea of how much would be needed.

"Big." He said quickly. Melissa smiled maliciously.

"He slept all night in a human form then. Fine. I'll get the solution prepped." She said, hopping off her bean-bag and pulling out a bottle and a syringe. She drew about twenty millilitres of the fluid into the syringe, blowing out a little bit to remove the bubbles. She carried the needle in her mouth, giving Lazlo cause for worry. He'd seen that look in her eye before, and usually it was when she was about to kill someone.

"I think I'd better do it." He said hurriedly, taking the syringe out of her mouth. She furrowed her eyebrows. What was the point of administering an injection if it didn't hurt?

"You don't know where to inject him." She said briskly, tugging the needle back out of Lazlo's grasp and padding out the door with it. Lazlo bounded after her in two seconds, to catch her running up the staircase. He swore under his breath, chasing after her. As he got to the residential floor, he found Melissa standing outside his doorway. Lazlo made a move to take the needle out of her mouth, but she shook her head.

"Yewl neeb oo 'old im dill." She spat around the barrel, motioning to the door with an ear, "Affder thwee."

Lazlo picked Melissa up, holding her under his arm, and teleported them straight into the room together. The next thing she knew was that she was being assaulted by a screeching wall of noise, the pained Eon curled on the floor in front of them.

"Old im." She mumbled, watching as Lazlo restrained the rocking Eon, which was oblivious to the attention. Melissa looked carefully at his body, before jumping across to next to his wing. She rested the point on the skin, before sinking the hypodermic through into his bloodstream. The plunger depressed automatically, delivering a mixture of muscle relaxants, electrolyte solution, and an anaesthetic. The Eon's struggling subsided gradually, and the Eon slipped into a dreamless sleep. Lazlo picked the tiny Eon back up, flipping him onto the bed. He smoothed the sheets over it to conserve its body heat, before turning back to Melissa. She was grooming her fur as though it was nothing.

"You fret over your appearance too much." He said to her. She looked up at him endearingly.

"Well I do like to look nice for you." She answered. Lazlo sniggered.

"Naturally." He said, before walking over to the door and opening it to let her back out. She pouted at him, because she wanted to teleport with him again, but did as she was told. She wandered back downstairs to her bean bag, and jumped onto the top of it, sinking slowly in the soft material. She stretched out, before looking up at the clock. She blinked twice, and swore violently, waking up every Pokemon in the building outside of guest rooms. It was four in the morning, and her shift started in two hours.

* * *

Laura rolled over in her bed, the last fragments of her dream disintegrating into the calm nothingness that cloaked the mind just before dawn. She'd woken up shortly after Moxis had put her in the bed, and she'd seized the key, locking the door shut so she could sleep in peace as a Latias. She opened her eyes lazily, watching the early suns rays peeking through the blinds, streaks of red and orange painting themselves on the opposite wall. She slowly uncoiled her wings, savouring the lazy feeling that washed through them. The beds here had been much more comfortable than the ones at Alanus, and were easily more refreshing. Geraint had been stingy when it came to booking the intermediate room, booking them into a room of a hotel that didn't look as though it could even support its own weight. And the less said about the service, the better.

"It looked better on the website!" Geraint had insisted consistently throughout the stay. Still, it was pretty much nothing but cinders now since Geraint had accidentally sneezed at some point during the second night, transforming the structure into a blazing inferno.

Laura looked around at the room she was staying in now. Rather than the drab grey ramshackle room they'd slept in at Alanus, this room was bustling with colour. The walls were a light pastel green, with a plush blue carpet underneath. The bedroom itself was reasonably spacious, with a vanity opposite the end of the bed, and a chest of drawers at each side of the bed. In one corner of the ceiling, a television was mounted on a wall bracket, and there was an adjoining bathroom just off from the entrance-way. A muted glow was shining through a long window on the side opposite the doorway, the blinds casting dozens of horizontal shadows across the floor. She hovered over towards the window, peeking out through the blinds, and gasped. They were so high! She could see most of the village fanned out one way, the buildings lining the shallow slope down towards a river at the end. The other way was a small grassy plain cupped by tall pines, a clear field with a few small children playing with a ball. She looked back away from the view, and headed towards the door, landing and transforming into a Typhlosion on the way. She felt so much more cumbersome as a Typhlosion, and she still wasn't used to being nearly twice as big as she normally was. She clasped the door handle in her paws, and opened it. Her foot hit something lying on the floor, and she looked down to see Geraint as a Typhlosion sleeping across the doorway. She carefully edged away around him, before creeping downstairs quietly.

"You don't need to be subtle." A voice said from behind her. She squeaked in alarm and looked around to see the wizened Alakazam ambling towards her, "You're a guest here, you may come and go as you please."

She watched the Alakazam look down once at Geraint, before a Lucario appeared seemingly out of nowhere and hauled the unconscious Typhlosion into the room. Lazlo came out a few seconds later, and locked the door behind him, teleporting away again. Kenai motioned for Laura to follow him. She followed the Alakazam downstairs through the main foyer, past Melissa sat at the desk, and into a room that looked like a large empty waiting lounge. Kenai sat down on a sofa, and motioned for Laura to sit on the one opposite him.

"How long have you been with Geraint?" He asked her, watching her carefully. She shuffled uneasily before answering.

"About three months." She lied. Kenai snorted in disbelief, but didn't pressure her.

"And has anything happened in that time that could have adversely affected him?" He asked her. She fidgeted again.

"I don't know if I should say this…"

"Anything you say can be kept in the strictest of confidence." He told her professionally.

"Are you sure?" She asked him. Kenai glared at her angrily, but ignored the insult to his morality.

"There is something wrong with Geraint." He said calmly. Laura jolted upright.

"What?"

"When I knew him," He continued, "He rarely ever made use of his Typhlosion form. He said it was too degrading for him being a Pokemon. Well there's human vanity for you…"

"Is any of this… you know… important?" Laura asked him.

"Just answer me this. Has anything happened recently to him? Anything that could trigger a change like this?"

The image of a pale hand jutting out under a white sheet brought itself to mind, Geraint's weeping.

"No. Nothing." She said quietly. Kenai could tell she was lying, but his own prudent nature prevented him from ever reading the mind of a female.

"Madam. I'd rather you didn't answer than lie. Lies mislead. No answer means I just have to look elsewhere. What do you say now?"

"Do that then. Look somewhere else." She said defensively. Kenai smiled at her.

"Then something happened that either you don't want to talk about or he's asked you not to talk about." He said calmly. Laura just looked at him, cursing his powers of deduction. He shook his head.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. I am a genius after all."

"A modest one at that." Laura said sarcastically. Kenai nodded, because for an Alakazam, he was being extremely modest.

"Quite. Whilst we're here, is there anything _you_ want to ask?"

"Yes actually. What changes did you make to the-"

"No, no, no. That's a question Geraint wants you to ask. He can do his dirty work himself. I was asking if there was anything you wanted to ask."

"Oh." Laura said, looking down at her feet. The Alakazam watched her as she tapped the feet gently.

"Well… I suppose… Why did that boy pull me away when those blue things got Geraint with that foam?"

"I told him to, so don't get excited." Kenai replied dully, before getting up, "And the blue things are Lucarios. We have about six of them." Laura stood up as well automatically, much to Kenai's amusement.

"So what now?" She asked him.

"I'll arrange for you to go around town with someone, seeing as Moxis wouldn't honour you with one yesterday." He answered, "If you could go wait in the reception hall."

Laura obliged, wandering back through into the reception area. Melissa glared at her coldly as she walked past the Glaceon, and she sat down at the same bench as yesterday to watch the Magikarp in the tank. Melissa continued to glare at her for several minutes, before shaking her head and settling back into the desk routine.

* * *

Kenai started pacing the room mechanically. Anyone that knew him could tell he was deep in conversation with someone downstairs through his telepathy.

"Teal. How much surveillance can you get the techies to put on Geraint?"

"When he's in his room, not much for legal reasons. Why?"

"I've found out what's happened to make him stay in his Typhlosion form."

"Really?"

"I got the information from the other Typhlosion that came in with him. A girl he had a strong relationship with was killed under his care."

"Ouch."

"Quite. It would appear that he's lost his faith in being human, and is trying to escape from the pain as a Pokemon. However, in his Typhlosion form, he'll be subject to all the rules of regular Typhlosions at this time of year."

"You mean… he'll…"

"Exactly." Kenai said, terminating the connection. He rolled his shoulders and walked back into the reception hall.

* * *

Moxis woke up from his own bed down on level twelve. No landscape view for his room, just the cold brush of flux metal that was standard for all the underground rooms. He shook himself, throwing the covers off to get to his desk. He turned on a computer, and poured himself a hot chocolate from a machine whilst waiting for the computer to warm up. He took a long draught from the cup, watching a pet Caterpie crawling up the side of its plastic box. He picked the box up gently and set it on his desk. He held his face a few inches away from the side and scratched the side gently with one fore claw.

"One day Charles, you're going to be a kick-ass Butterfree." He said to the Caterpie. It blinked at him, causing Moxis to give an exasperated growl. Most Pokemon had enough brains in their head to show consciousness, but until this one evolved, it was stuck being nothing more than a cool pet. He tore off a piece from a lettuce he kept for it, and put it in the box for the Caterpie to eat. The bug jumped off the wall of the container, and settled down to eat as Moxis put the box back on the floor. He looked over to see that his computer had finally warmed up, and he sat down to type. He logged into the system, paws moving deftly over the keyboard taking him to his e-mail. He took one look at the inbox, and sighed.

"Two-hundred and thirty-seven spam. Somebody really doesn't like me." He said to himself, clearing the entire folder in one movement. He looked again to see that he actually had one e-mail, and it was from his dad. He opened it.

**Come upstairs as soon as you've finished your breakfast. Too private to say about in an e-mail.**

Moxis punched the air triumphantly, making eager assumptions.

"You see that Charles? I've got a dangerous mission!" He shouted. He kicked himself backwards in his chair, temporarily balancing on the two back legs, before it fell back on all four. Moxis leapt out of the chair, intending to dash straight up to the ground floor.

Ding!

The computer beeped as another e-mail came through, and Moxis turned to look at the new message.

**Maybe it would be better to skip breakfast, and come straight here.**

He didn't need telling twice. He dashed out of the door, crashing into a Gallade walking past. Kotor growled at the midget.

"What do you think you're doing zipping around like a pup on sugar?!" He yelled at Moxis. The Riolu jogged on the spot in anticipation as he started.

"I've-been-given-a-dangerous-mission-today!" He said non-stop, "Dad thinks I've got the skills!"

Kotor smiled a sort of evil, yet encouraging smile.

"Well go knock 'em dead. You're not a man until you've killed someone." He said, tapping a leaf blade on the butt of a laser gun strapped to his hip. Moxis looked at it in awe, then back up at the Gallade's face.

"Yes sir, Mr Kotor sir!" Moxis said, as he started running down the corridor. He could hear Kotor shouting something after him.

"Make sure you get lots of practice in! I want to be able duel someone with skill that _isn't_ divine."

* * *

Melissa watched as the Riolu dashed into the reception hall, skidding the last several metres. She raised an eyebrow.

"And what makes you in such a hurry?"

"Pops said I got a dangerous mission at last!" He told her, still hopping on the spot. Melissa tilted her head.

"I doubt it. But he's upstairs if you have to see him. He's been with…" Melissa looked up to notice Laura listening intently on the other side of the room, "him since about four in the morning."

Moxis turned around to look at the Typhlosion. He watched her until she looked away in shyness, before dashing off upstairs. Something about that Typhlosion didn't sit right with him. Call it a gut feeling, but he didn't like her at all.

* * *

Ganon was just starting to stir from the cocktail injected in him from nearly two hours ago. Lazlo watched as the Eon shifted, and pulled out a palmtop. He sent a quick e-mail to his son, before turning back to the shifting sheets.

"Gurrazaah…" Ganon mumbled from under the covers. Lazlo frowned.

"Wake up."

"Dunn wanna wake up…" He mumbled, rolling over, and pulling himself deeper under the sheets.

"Tough." Lazlo said, whipping the sheets off him with a single movement. Ganon fumbled briefly, before sitting up in the bed. Lazlo watched him intently.

"What?" Ganon asked after several minutes of being stared at.

"Every other day, you've woken up and immediately changed into your human form. Get on with it."

Ganon screeched at him in anger and lunged for the Lucario, which unsurprisingly blocked the attack with ease.

"And as you know full well that attacking me will get you nowhere, change into your human form."

"I don't want to change into my human form." Ganon yelled, "It hurts."

It was Lazlo's turn to swipe at the struggling Eon, claws raking a gouge in his face. He pinned Ganon onto the bed by his neck, and growled in his face.

"Don't you... EVER… use pain as an excuse to get out of anything. That's for the weak. Are you weak?"

Ganon paused for a while, seriously thinking it over.

"Yes?" He said tentatively. Lazlo thrust the Eon's neck further into the bed, choking him.

"No you're bloody well not! You… are a legendary. Even in your weakest moments you could bat aside any lesser Pokemon with ease."

Ganon struggled against the Lucario's grip on his throat.

"Are you sure? Cos I'm still under your paw here." He choked out.

Lazlo growled at the assumption and removed the claw, and watched as the Eon caressed his neck where he'd been pressing. Ganon could tell that he was holding his temper in check when he answered.

"I'm not a lesser Pokemon, as you know full well." He replied, "I am undefeatable."

"How's that?"

"You do not question your commanding officer. Now change back into a human."

Ganon looked at the Lucario in anger, before resentfully reassuming his human form. He winced at first, expecting pain to set in, but was pleasantly surprised when it didn't, letting out a breath he didn't realise he was holding. Lazlo finally broke out into a smile.

"Good child." He said, patting the boys shoulder. There was a knock on the door, and Lazlo answered it, allowing Moxis to enter the room. The Riolu hopped about excitedly, practically bouncing off the walls.

"What's-my-mission-what's-my-mission-what's-my-"

"GET DOWN!" Lazlo yelled at the child. The Riolu reluctantly let go of the lampshade, and fell to the floor. He looked at his feet and shuffled nervously.

"Sorry…" He mumbled. Lazlo smiled and stroked the top of his head.

"Good boy. Kenai needs you both to show the Typhlosion around the town."

Moxis's jaw dropped, before he closed it again quickly.

"Her?! Your idea of urgent danger is taking a shiny on a tour?!"

"You don't understand what's at stake here. Teal relayed Kenai's suspicions to me earlier, and between us we've decided that the best thing would be to keep her off the premises for as long as possible."

"There's no point."

"Moxis, do you know what Geraint's alternative form is?"

"Sure. A Typhlosion."

"Well by keeping her off the premises, it guarantees that Geraint can't… you know."

"Pull a move on her." Moxis said casually. Lazlo growled at him, and Ganon raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"You're too young to know things like that."

"So is Teal."

Lazlo automatically looked at Ganon, but immediately pulled his head back in line.

"That's not the point. Keep her out of here for as long as possible. You're monitored, so don't panic if you get in trouble." He said, standing up, "Ganon?"

"What?"

"Do what Moxis tells you whilst you're out. He knows the town better than you, so he'll keep you out of trouble."

"Hey! What am I? The Eon's baby-sitter?" Moxis said indignantly.

"Well put it this way. Whilst you're looking after him, you're effectively a dragon tamer."

"Awesome!" Moxis shouted, punching the air. Ganon snorted indignantly.

"But no pillaging." Lazlo warned as an afterthought.

"Awww!" Moxis groaned.

* * *

Cut off just before another Ganon-Laura interaction. Aren't I cruel sometimes?


	9. Off the Scopes

Almost two months it's been since I've updated this, or anything for that matter. This is the first chapter I've made since a head injury, so my style may seem a little different. That and the fact the new editor is... well rubbish frankly, this chapter may have really dodgy errors. I don't think it'll cut off anything, but I'm hoping it won't.

I've finally got around to several things I've wanted to get in this story for ages.  
1) Anti-Dracoshipping. (Oh how I've waited for this moment! I hate it _sooooo_ much.)  
2) Eonshipping Triangle  
3) A cross-over with 'A Kiss of Fire.' (eight years after where it is currently, at chapter two.)  
4) Hint's about Lazlo's condition.  
5) The illusive Cloning machine Demonstration. (I've redesigned the machine, but you won't really be able to tell until I get a drawing on imageshack.)

Now absolutely no one is going to bother reading because I just summarised the entire plot. Whoops.

_Lateral Ganon_

Warning: This chapter, I think, pushes the borders of the T rating.  
Disclaimer: You knew those eight chapters ago.

# # # **Chapter Specific Notes** # # #

_Italics are Teal's Telepathy.  
_When Lazlo mentions the town has been vegetised, basically, everyone's looking the other way when the actions happening, and they don't notice anything. Think of zombies that have had their fill of brains, and are just lumbering around aimlessly. Look at a busy high-street, and you've got the idea.  
Reader's who cross reference my stories, you might recognise Teal.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Off the Scopes**

"What are you doing?" Ganon asked as he watched the Riolu dashing around his room excitedly after his father had left. The pup stopped running and looked at him.

"It's my first mission outside! I've never been given a task out-of-house before other than fetching things."

"Great…" Ganon murmured, walking over to the door and opening it, "And aren't we going somewhere, or do you just want to burn a circle in my carpet with your feet?"

Laura looked up as two figures entered the reception hall where she was waiting. As soon as Moxis remembered who he was taking for the trip, he blanched. Ganon noticed, and nudged him with his foot.

"What's your problem?" Ganon asked.

"Nothing. Just first mission nerves." Moxis lied back. Ganon shook his head and looked back at the Typhlosion. It blinked at him, and he knew he would have to make the first move.

"Are you ready for your tour madam?" He said courteously. Moxis glared at him angrily.

"You just upstaged me!" He whispered, "I was supposed to say that!"

Ganon smirked down at the Riolu, and pushed him forwards towards the Typhlosion slightly. He smiled nervously at her, and backed up again.

"On second thoughts, you handle the talking."

"You're not nervous about talking to girls are you Moxis?" Melissa said in a sickly sweet voice from behind the counter. Laura looked between Melissa and Moxis apprehensively. Moxis made a face at Melissa.

"I'm not a Lucario. I have no interest in girls other than as friends." He replied tersely. Melissa smiled kindly at him, and the sight made Ganon want to retch. Because he didn't like Melissa, he decided he actually would retch. Melissa glared at him evilly.

* * *

Back in the underground chambers, a Meditite was watching a screen in its typical trance. The whole room was a massive bank of monitors, each one with a Meditite closely following and manipulating the information on screen. The first one noticed a large anomaly in a satellite feed. He zoomed in on the patch and looked at the long wavy silhouette present against the green backdrop. He typed in a further command, and a red light flashed over his booth, alongside a computerised voice, since he'd lost his own.

"Bogey."

Within a matter of seconds, a further thirty more calls of bogey had been activated as other Meditites found the anomoly. An Aipom on an elevated platform at one end grabbed a handle on the wall with its tail, and started pulling it. One turn, two turns, three turns… a high pitched wail began to sound through all three miles of the building. Air Raid.

* * *

Everyone in the reception jumped as a rolling klaxon suddenly started blaring, accompanied by a spinning orange light overhead. Melissa immediately started hammering away at the counter until a control panel came up. She read the feed the Meditites had put on every screen, and swore violently. Lazlo teleported next to her, and gave her a reproachful slap.

"My son's learnt enough swear-words off you." He chided. Melissa scowled back at him.

"Well if you haven't noticed, it's justified. We've got a bogey on radar."

"I'm not deaf!" Lazlo bellowed at her before remotely cutting off the alarm in the room, "But I need to ask this. Has Teal been through here?"

Melissa paused. It was only a few hours ago.

"Shit." She muttered under her breath, "She got posted outside to keep an eye on your little tour group."

"ETA?" Lazlo asked.

"Four minutes. It'll take Teal ten minutes to get anywhere safe though from her position and that would be if she knew. We can't get a signal from her comms." Melissa read out from the monitor. Lazlo face-palmed.

"Of all the damn timing… Boy!" He called over to Ganon.

"What?" Ganon asked. Moxis gasped as he saw his father pull off the gun holster at his belt, and throw it to Ganon. The Eon fumbled the catch, and almost dropped it. Laura winced.

"I can't go after a bogey now. Kenai made the order exceptionally explicit. Just keep that on ice setting and you'll be fine. Just remember not to shoot Teal though."

"Dad, why can't I do this? I can at least aim straight. No offence." Moxis added hastily as he saw Ganon's look of indignation. Lazlo shook his head.

"So you're saying that you would fight hand to hand with it?" Lazlo asked sarcastically. Moxis looked at his feet. Melissa tapped the desk to get their attention again.

"Two minutes." She said.

"Shit. RUN!"

"But I don't know-" He started, but the Lucario grabbed him and dragged him out the door. He pointed down the main street ahead of them.

"Straight to the end, left at the junction. Follow that for a bit, then right to the forest. If you forget you'll be late, but if you're late, you'll be able to see what you're aiming for. We've mentally vegetised the humans for security, so they might get in the way." Lazlo finished before dashing back inside. Ganon looked down the street, and started running.

* * *

Lazlo grabbed his son by the nape of his neck as he saw him try to sneak past to follow Ganon.

"Your mission still stands. Keep an eye on this Typhlosion." Lazlo said, pointing at the panicking Laura. Moxis groaned and started tapping her side to get her attention. She looked down at him, but the panic was still evident.

"Calm down miss. Nothing can hurt you in here." He said, grasping her paw gently. She gulped noisily, and Moxis led her back into the lounge that Kenai had taken her to yesterday. Several other Pokemon staying in the centre had been clustered into the room, and she could tell immediately it was because of an emergency. Two more Lucarios were trying to maintain order, and so far were doing a reasonable job. Moxis led her over to another couch.

"And now we just sit and wait." He said, reaching over for a comic on the table of newspapers.

Geraint leapt up as the alarm blared though his room. He looked around in shock, and his vision immediately fell on a silver Latios amulet resting on the bedside cabinet.

* * *

As Ganon reached the second junction, he ran straight through it instead of right. He continued down to the end of the road, and swore as he discovered it was a dead end. He spun around to face the way he had come, and immediately wished he'd never spoke to those Swellows.

A giant green snake could be seen corkscrewing through the cloud layer, aimed directly to the north of where he was stood. Prongs could be seen jutting from behind its face, and there were rings of fins along its body. Its red mouth was gaping open, and it was roaring a guttural roar. Ganon recognised this Pokemon from pictures used by the tutors in the Nursery, and it had haunted his worst nightmares for months afterwards.

#-#-#-#-#

"The Rayquaza is a fearsome brute which bows to no-one, and does as it pleases." The tutor said to a mostly awestruck class, "It is fiercely territorial, and has an innate sense of when something intrudes into that territory, namely, the sky. This sense includes the portals that are used to send you youngsters into the Prime Material Realm, so within a fortnight of arrival, you are likely to be found by the Rayquaza."

"Wouldn't it be better to lower the height at which the portal opens so he wouldn't find us?" Ganon asked the teacher warily. The tutor glared at him.

"It would be more convenient for runts like you yes. But that's the whole point of them opening in the Rayquaza's territory, to weed out weak specimens like you." The tutor replied. Ganon shrank in his seat as more Eons pelted bits of paper at him.

"You can leave now Ganon because the next piece of information will be totally irrelevant to you." The tutor said, turning back to a sheet of slate at the front of the room.

"Why." Ganon asked.

"Because I can guarantee you will never have a mate." He snickered. Ganon bristled.

"You're wrong." He said. The other youngsters gasped, namely as this was the bravest thing he'd ever done. Lying to a teacher. The tutor sniggered at him, and threw him out of the room with a psychic blast.

"And now for the more realistic of you…"

#-#-#-#-#

Ganon looked back up at the sky to see the snake career down and crash down near the trees next to the village. He ran back along the road and took the right road towards the forest, and winced as he could just hear faint screaming and roaring from ahead. He turned the last corner and screamed himself when he saw what was happening.

The Rayquaza had pinned a thirteen year old girl with waist length red hair to the ground and was slashing at her torso. It was screeching something at her.

"CHANGE BACK! CHANGE BACK! CHANGE BACK DAMMIT!"

The girl was screaming hysterically as the Rayquaza kept slashing at her with its talons. Without knowing what he was doing, Ganon took aim directly at the creatures head, and fired six shots. All six missed by a wide margin, but the mildly cold schokwave they left behind drew its attention. The Rayquaza turned to look at him, and he quailed as the beady yellow eyes bored straight through him. The lizard roared at him, and lashed at him with its tail, knocking him onto his back.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU PUNY HUMAN!" It roared, trying to grab Ganon's neck with a claw. He rolled aside, and the Rayquaza glared at him as he managed to pick himself up.

"Fast little beggar aren't you." It growled angrily, lunging again. Ganon got a nick on the arm for his trouble, and fired another dozen bolts loosely, one of which hit it in the eye. It growled in pain, and lunged again, catching Ganon in the chest, knocking the breath from him. The lizard smirked evilly as it looked at the winded boy, moving its head closer to inspect the fallen warrior.

"I'm a god! What do you think- Argh! Brain freeze!" The Rayquaza growled as Ganon took several shots at the roof of the lizard's mouth, a target even he couldn't miss. It shut its mouth and started banging its head against the ground trying to shake off the numbness. When it was obviously not going to disappear, it spun around and took off again to find a volcano, its flight confused and twisting from the damage.

* * *

Ganon blanched as he saw a trickle of blood running down the hill past him, and looked up to see how much damage the Rayquaza had done to the girl. Judging by the amount of blood, she was probably dead and in dozens of pieces.

In comparison, he wasn't too surprised by the fact that the girl was standing up and facing away from him. What was considerable more surprising was that her right hand was glowing blue and she was running it over the gashes left by the lizard. Under the treatment, the damage faded slightly. It looked very similar to what Ganon had done when he'd fixed his wing at the Segon River Canyon. He took a step towards her.

"Excuse me." He said, "Are you-"

The girl turned her head slightly, looking at him from the back corner of her eye, before immediately running off. Ganon growled.

"Some thanks for saving your life." He muttered before pelting after her. She led him into the forest, immediately turning off the beaten path. She moved with such fluidity in this environment, it was unnatural. Every single branch on the floor seemed intent on tripping him up, but didn't hinder her at all. He soon found at why though as she looked back quickly, and branches from trees on either side pressed together to form a wall blocking the way. Telekinesis. He crashed through the undergrowth, amassing hundreds of scratches and drawing yet more blood from him. He looked up to see the girl jump and continue running, turning away from the densest parts and heading back towards the grassy outcrop. Ganon put on another burst of speed, and almost caught up with her.

"Wait a sec!" He shouted at her. She turned slightly, so she was practically back-pedalling, and he knocked her to the ground as he crashed into her, her on her back and him on top of her.

"Why did you run off?" He asked her. She squirmed and looked into his eyes.

_Why are you doing this?_ She asked him telepathically. He jolted back in shock, and she winced.

"You're a psychic?"

_Don't do that! Get off me!_ She demanded, pain evident in the voice. He got up carefully, and helped her to her feet. He grimaced as he immediately saw what had pained her. The midriff of her top had been burnt off, along with part of the skirt, by the Rayquaza, and the flesh was still red raw despite her attempts to heal it.

"That lizard did that?" Ganon said, looking away modestly.

_That beast, yes. _She said, pulling the waistband back together and sealing it with the blue light. She looked at Ganon warily, _But what does it matter to you? You have one of our lasers, so you must be staff yourself._

"Ganon. At your service." He said, offering her a hand. She looked at him curiously.

_So you're the new kid. I was wondering when I'd get to meet you. I'm Teal._ She finished, shaking his hand once. Ganon smiled.

"I was right then. You're the one that I got sent out to find." He said. Teal glared at him.

_Who sent you?_

"Lazlo." He answered. Instant outrage took over her.

_Lazlo?! He knows how important I am! Can't he stop fiddling with his damn ordnance for once and save a damsel in distress?!_

"Ordnance?"

_Ballistics. Projectiles. Weapons. He's always playing with some damn cannon._ She fumed, before lowering her head slightly; _He's been interfering with my readings again._

"It's happened before?" Teal looked at him sadly, and started walking back to the PokeCentre with him.

_Not to the same extent. Usually I get some kind of warning. It's known for just over a year I'm here, and it won't stop until it… gets me._

"Gets you?" He asked her in confusion. She brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes.

_You know… It just won't stop until…_ She gestured at her midriff, placing her other hand on her hip. Ganon averted his eyes again, and she growled at him.

_Stop being such a prude! You're worse than Lazlo!_ She said, punching his arm. He clutched it in shock, but laughed all the same. She glowered at him. _Why are you laughing?_

"I just find that hard to believe." He said, rubbing the arm. He winced as he suddenly felt warm blood on the hand, "Oh… the damn lizard got me."

Teal looked at the wound the Rayquaza had given him and sighed when she realised it wasn't serious.

_You should have fixed that up easily. What made you forget? Pretty little me?_ She said teasingly. Ganon sniggered.

"Can you give me a second to sort this out?"

_Take sixty_ She said, turning away from him. He moved over into the shade of the first building and transformed back into a Latios, and ran a claw over the wound still present on his shoulder. It melted into a flat layer of skin again, and he did the same for the rest of the little scratches he'd picked up. Once he was satisfied he'd healed everything, he transformed back into his human form. Unbeknown to him, Teal had been watching him all the time from the corner of her eye. She smirked as he walked back.

_Very nice bottom._ She whispered telepathically; just quietly enough for him to miss the exact meaning.

"What was that?"

_Oh nothing…_ She said innocently, and for some reason, he felt inclined to believe her.

* * *

Geraint leapt down the staircases two steps at a time, skidding across the reception floor as he reached it. He looked around at the orange lights whirring in place of the sconces, before looking around. He immediately caught sight of Laura, and tried dashing over. Moxis looked up, and nodded at one of the Lucarios sitting in with the crowd, and it stood up, stopping him at the door. Another one came up from behind almost immediately and sprayed something on his neck, causing him to fall unconscious immediately. The two Lucarios caught the Typhlosion, and teleported him back into his room, laying him back on the bed. Totally unnoticed. The first Lucario teleported back to the waiting room, and knelt down next to Moxis.

"Now we're even." He said to him. Moxis smiled back.

"Just tell me if you need something taping again."

* * *

_So what has the rest of the troupe taught you so far?_ She asked him as they left the last outcrop of buildings before the PokeCentre. Ganon paused for a second to think. Nothing much came up.

"I know how to pull a trigger, and not to mess with Lazlo." He answered. Teal laughed.

_I knew that the Lazlo phrase was coming. I knew that within seconds of meeting him. Of course, in those few seconds he'd already broken my arm…_ Ganon looked at her in surprise.

"He broke your arm?!"

_I broke his nose._ She answered matter of factly.

"Ahh. Before or after the arm?" He asked. Teal smirked at him.

_Before of course!_

"Really?"

_No._ She answered, weaving her fingers through his. He blushed awkwardly, and tried to pull away, but their fingers were too intertwined. Teal beamed at him.

_So you tackle a Rayquaza without a second thought, but you're scared half to death of pretty little me. Now why is- Oh stop that!_ She said, pulling Ganon's hand firmly down as he tried shaking it. Again he tried to pull away, but she just grabbed his other hand.

"Look… you don't understand." He started, "I've already got a girlfriend."

Teal looked at him sceptically, but still kept a hold on his hands.

_Well whatever, she'll be long gone now. Probably still in the nursery._

"Excuse me?" He asked, surprised.

_Latias hatchings are mostly in July. We aren't expecting another portal until June, so it stands to reason she's still up there. _He frowned at her.

"You know a lot more than you're letting on."

_I work with genii. I'm bound to pick something up._ She replied, calmly. Ganon fidgeted with their hands again.

"Well why are still holding my hands if you know I feel awkward about it?"

_Well I like you. Just not the way you think I do. Friends can hold hands, especially if they're different genders, then it's totally acceptable._

"But things will esc- esc- escalate!" He stuttered, now blushing madly. She laughed at him.

_Big word coming from you. Trust me. Things won't escalate because of me choosing it to, because I won't. And if you're in love with your girl as much as you say you are, then you won't either._

"But…but… but…" He brought her hands up again, "Why?"

_Okay. Think of it this way. We're both field agents with unique abilities. Chances are, at some point we'll be sent on a mission together. If we can make this look natural, we can do our jobs better without attracting suspicion._

Ganon thought about it for a minute. When she put it that way, it seemed to be reasonable. But on the other hand… there was Laura. He looked back at Teal, and noticed her gazing pleadingly at him. He just couldn't resist that look.

"Do we have to?" He asked her. She looked at him happily.

_Well we don't _have_ to, but it makes a job a lot easier. So would you rather cruise through the system, or be found out at a crucial moment and risk death before you find your girl?_

He didn't give any verbal response, but she felt his hands relax in hers. She smiled back up at him, and let go of his hands. He wrung them as soon as she let go.

"Thank you." He said.

_Any time. _She winked saucily at him, and walked into the PokeCentre. He looked away from the building, and mouthed one word.

"Wow."

He heard the doors of the centre hiss open again, and Teal ran out again quickly to him.

_And just to finish up…_She said, and kissed him quickly on the cheek. He immediately stumbled over backwards in shock, and looked at her looming over him. She laughed gently, and the sound was strangely fluty. _Whoops. I guess you weren't ready for that._ She giggled and dashed back inside. This time, what Ganon said was audible.

"Double Wow."

* * *

Teal looked over at the waiting room still full of people and Pokemon kept in check by the Lucario guards. She moved over to Melissa by the desk, and tapped it to get her attention.

_Why is the alarm still going? The bogey left ages ago._ She said. The Glaceon looked scandalised.

"No-one downstairs told us the bogey was off radar."

_Well I saw it leave. It'll be somewhere over Sinnoh by now judging by the speed it was going at._ She giggled softly, _Ganon shot it in the mouth._

"Teal… are you developing a crush on Ganon." She asked. Teal rocked her head.

_Well not a _crush_-crush. He's just sweet._

"Oh… for a second there I thought we had you straightened out."

_Well I'll admit he's got a cute butt, but I've already got a girlfriend._

Melissa sighed exasperatedly, and Teal wandered through to the backrooms, taking an elevator into the underground. Within seconds, she'd reached her level, and started walking down the corridor, shaking her hips enticingly. The longer term residents didn't even bat an eyelid, but several of the newer recruits, including a younger Machop that had never seen her before, stopped and stared. The supervising Machoke grabbed him by the shoulder and whispered something in his ear, and the Machop immediately started banging its head against the wall in disgust.

As she entered her bedroom, she laid back on her bed, and recalled her lucky escape with the Rayquaza. The beasts pain when Ganon shot it… the chase… him on top of her. She giggled.

_I suppose I wouldn't mind too much if things did escalate._ She thought to herself. Ganon should have counted himself lucky. He was the only male she would ever have any kind of interest in.

* * *

Moxis looked up at Ganon as he hobbled into the centre. He immediately jumped up and ran over to him, closely followed by Laura. Ganon fell into one of the chairs in the reception, apparently unable to stand for much longer.

"What the hell happened to you? Did the Rayquaza break a leg or something?" He said. Laura gasped.

"The Rayquaza?! There was the Rayquaza here?!"

Moxis looked at her quizzically.

"You know about the Rayquaza?"

"It's evil. It attacks girls mercilessly. I was warned about it when I was younger."

"Only Latias are pursued by the Rayquaza." Moxis said, looked at her carefully, "You wouldn't be warned about it unless-"

"I'm pink and white. I look like a Latias." She said quickly. "And I'm a similar size to a fully grown one. I doubt its eyesight is good enough to tell the difference."

"No, it didn't do any damage." Ganon said. Moxis snorted.

"Then it must be blind."

"Oi!" Ganon interjected. Laura sniggered.

"Then why are you so shaky." Moxis asked. Ganon blushed.

"Well… nah… you won't believe it."

"Try me."

"Well… Teal… kissed me." Ganon said. Laura looked scandalized, and Moxis snorted.

"I don't believe you."

"I told you you wouldn't."

"No. Really. Teal wouldn't kiss a boy. She prefers girls." Moxis said. Ganon and Laura both stared at him.

"Oh gods… Laura would kill me." Ganon said. Laura stared at him, but Moxis interrupted.

"Because someone kissed you? She'd only have reason to kill you if YOU kissed TEAL!" Moxis argued. Ganon scratched his nose in embarrassment.

"Yeah… I guess so." He said, Laura put her paws on her hips and huffed again.

"Where did she kiss you?" She demanded.

"On the cheek." Ganon answered. Moxis nodded.

"That's likely. She wouldn't be comfortable kissing you on the lips." He said. Laura looked slightly more relieved. They all stood, or in Ganon's case sat, there for a few minutes. The orange alarm light above them faded out, and Moxis whistled.

"About time that stopped. Sometimes I think the techies do that just to annoy us."

"Hmmm… anyway. The tour?" Ganon said, standing up and offering the Typhlosion an arm. She blushed.

"Is the Rayquaza definitely gone?" She asked. Ganon smiled.

"Definitely." He answered. Moxis growled.

"Hey. Who's leading who here? Remember what dad said."

"Have it your way then. Lead on then, oh great Dragon Tamer." He said. Moxis frowned, and Laura laughed at him.

"No need to get so sarcastic about it." The Riolu groaned, leading them out of the building.

* * *

Lazlo slammed his fist on the desk, cracking it down the middle. Several of the other dignitaries present recoiled.

"Which idiot sent out Teal when we must have known there was a Rayquaza coming?!"

"Calm down Lazlo." Kenai said, spinning around slowly to face them in his swivel chair at the end of the table. Lazlo frowned.

"You look like a typical clichéd evil boss when you do that." He answered. Kenai raised one bushy eyebrow at him.

"Well… do I look like your evil cliché boss if I do this?" He placed his feet on the floor underneath his chair, and kicked. The chair began spinning around in a flurry, and Kenai could be heard yelling something from the middle.

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Everyone at the table face faulted. As the chair began to slow down, he put his hands on the table to stop himself.

"Now how do I look?" He said to Lazlo. The Lucario made twitching movements at his nose. Kenai sighed and turned his moustache so it was no longer vertical, "Now to business."

"Why did we send out Teal?!" Lazlo demanded again. Kenai sighed.

"She at least looks human so she is ideal for work in populated areas. I thought we all knew that."

"Yes we know that, but we must also have noticed the bloody great Lizard on the radars!" He retorted to a general murmur of agreement from the assembled party. Kenai sighed.

"I was hoping it would never come to this, but I need to tell you that as the crystal reaches it's maximum capacity, it drastically narrows our radar scopes. Teal is very aware of this fact, and was the one who pointed this out to me." He said. The group immediately broke out into uproar.

"What if bombers came?"

"You're compromising our security!"

"I've got a family on the surface!"

Kenai raised a hand, and silence immediately ensued. Lazlo raised a hand as well, and Kenai nodded to let him speak.

"Do you know _why_ it narrows our scopes?" He asked. Kenai reclined in the chair, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"I don't know." He said, earning another round of murmurs from the crowd, "But…" the room fell silent again, "But Teal has a plausible theory which is very likely to be true. It is your crystal after all."

"Are you saying this is my fault?" Lazlo asked darkly.

"No, no. Not at all. But since that crystal is directly linked with you, you can affect it."

"So you are blaming me."

"Not intentionally." Kenai said quickly, "But I believe it's related to your levels of stress."

"STRESSED?! HOW CAN YOU CALL ME-" Lazlo stopped as he noticed all of the other Pokemon in the room watching him, nodding appreciatively. He smiled nervously, and Kenai continued.

"I think that when you have these extra duties during the demos, your stress levels rise sufficiently to affect the crystal. Whilst you cope well with the stress, the crystal doesn't. So to try and clean this mess up, we've set up a date for you and Melissa."

Lazlo's eyes bulged to the size of dinner plates, before he started shouting.

"THAT'S GOING TO KILL THE ENTIRE RADAR!" Kenai didn't look impressed.

"Now don't be like that. She'll get upset."

"LOOK! LOOK!" Lazlo shouted, scratching at the spikes jutting out of his hands. The grey began flaking off to reveal the spikes were made actually made of a dark purple crystalline material, which matched the colour of his eyes. Kenai whistled, "I didn't ask for any of this! I had no choice."

"Choice or not, you are what you are. You saved the world, so I'd consider it a worthy price."

Lazlo growled and spun on his heel, marching out of the room. The rest of the room gawped at the space where he was stood. A Scyther looked over at Kenai.

"What was that all about?" She asked. Kenai shook his head.

"Doesn't matter." He said, "Meeting adjourned."

* * *

"What is this?" Laura asked, looking at something that looked like three small tennis balls scooped into a glass with something brown drizzled over it. Moxis had another one which he was eating, and Ganon was poking at his own one with a spoon.

"It's called an Ice-cream Sundae." He said. Ganon and Laura both pushed their own sundaes towards the centre of the table.

"I'll pass." They said simultaneously. They looked at each other and smiled awkwardly. Moxis grunted at Ganon.

"Look, you won't have a problem eating ice. If anything, you'll enjoy it more." He said. Ganon looked at the dessert, before picking up a little on his spoon. Moxis watched him as he held it in front of his face, and growled as he made a move to put the spoon down.

"I really don't think-" The rest of the sentence was cut off as the Riolu jammed the spoon in his mouth.

"Don't make me spoon-feed you. I've learnt off my dad how to make it really embarrassing." The Riolu said calmly, still holding the spoon in place. After several moments of struggling, Ganon accidentally swallowed. He winced at first, but when no pain set in he tried taking another spoonful from the sundae. This time, he could actually taste it, and he noticed a pleasant tingling running through the roof of his mouth.

"It's actually really good." He said taking another bite. Laura looked at her own one, and poked it with the spoon, and her stomach rumbled ominously. Moxis glanced over at her.

"When did you last eat?" He asked her. She squirmed as she recalled that it was-

"Two days ago." She said, looking at the sundae forlornly, "But it would be a really bad idea for me to eat this."

"What's the problem? Does it give you gas or something?" He asked. Almost immediately, he was flung forwards, his face buried in his own ice-cream. An albino Quilava was stood behind where the Riolu was sitting; its paws outstretched having apparently just shoved him forwards.

"Don't you know any better than to talk about things like gas in front of a girl?" She said, before turning and walking back to a tall boy with mousey brown hair. He was about fifteen, and handsome in the classic sense of the word, except a slightly bulbous nose. He welcomed the Quilava back, and rubbed her sides affectionately before looking up at their table. He looked at Ganon for a few seconds, before walking over.

"Mind if I join you?" He said, pulling up a chair from the next table. Ganon looked at Moxis who had just managed to wipe the last of his ice-cream off his face with a napkin. He twisted it and started cleaning out his ears, which Ganon took as a yes.

"Sure."

"Thanks. I'm Benjamin by the way." He said, offering Ganon a hand. He shook it.

"Hi."

"I noticed you've got a pink Typhlosion." The boy said. The Quilava poked its head above the table.

"Will I be that ugly when I grow up?" She asked him. Laura hissed at her, and Benjamin laughed.

"We won't grow up." He said, picking her up and putting her on a chair next to him. She rubbed herself against his side gently, whilst Ganon and Laura just stared at him.

"You can understand Pokemon?" Ganon asked. Benjamin nodded.

"Yes. Well, no. Well… I can understand a reasonable amount of what Sophie says because I've learnt enough of her language, but that's about it. I couldn't for instance, understand that Riolu."

"And let's keep it that way." He said. Ganon smirked, whilst Benjamin looked down at Sophie.

"What did he say?" He asked her. Before she could answer, Ganon intervened.

"He said 'Let's keep it that way'."

Sophie looked up at him in shock, before turning back to Benjamin. She nodded vigorously at him.

"So you… you can understand the Riolu?"

"Err… yes?"

"You idiot!" Moxis shouted at him, "He doesn't need to know!"

"Can you talk to any other Pokemon? Besides the Riolu."

"More importantly, can you understand me?" Sophie asked in earnest. Ganon looked at her in confusion, before glaring at Benjamin.

"You want me to translate something she says right?" He asked her. Benjamin made a mock gesture of defeat.

"Got it in one. She's been acting really weird. She's been trying to say something to me for ages, but I haven't learnt the words she's saying and it'll take far too long for me to stumble on them by guesswork."

"So can you do it?" Sophie asked earnestly. Ganon looked back at her.

"Well I suppose I can't refuse." He reasoned. Moxis glared at him.

"You don't have to do anything." He growled. Laura was looking at the Quilava's face, reading the expression.

Ganon thought about it for a second, before talking again.

"Tell me."

"Oh thank you!" She said, resisting the urge to hug him. She sat up on the chair, looking around to see if anyone or anything else was listening. When she was satisfied, she lowered her head and spoke very quietly.

"Well… the thing is… well this is ridiculous… I mean…"

"Oh no. I know exactly what's coming." Laura said to herself mournfully. She'd tried to do the same thing almost word for word.

#-#-#-#-#

Laura was fidgeting with a tree near the wall where she waited for Ganon. It was only a Bluk tree, but it still had a special significance to her. She laughed to herself as she remembered Ganon coating his face with the black juice.

"Laura?" He suddenly said from the other side of the wall. She jumped and squealed at the sudden arrival, twanging the Bluk branch into the air. The berries came off, and rained down on her, causing her to squeal again.

"What's happening?!" He called through. She panted heavily, and laid down next to the wall.

"The Bluk berries. I was… holding the tree when you called… and they just went… whoosh and… splattered on me."

"Whoops. Sorry." He said. She could tell for some reason that he was scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Oh come on… it's not your fault." She cooed.

"Would it have happened otherwise?" He said. She paused.

"No."

"Then it was my fault, and don't you try taking the blame." He said, "You should be more focussed on getting it off. There's still the little river thingy that leads into a pond right? That's good for getting rid of the dye. Don't worry, I'm not looking."

Laura laughed at his comment.

"You can't look anyway."

"Good point, but I'm facing the other way just in case."

"In case of what?" She said brushing water over her face.

"I dunno. But still not taking any chances."

"Aw… you're too sweet sometimes."

After she'd finished washing the dye off, they sat against their relevant sides of the walls, and started talking again. Various lessons they'd attended, which tutor threw them out or tried to blow them up… the usual stuff. After about ten minutes though, in a lull in the conversation, Laura decided that now would be as good a time as any.

"Hey Ganon…" She started, her throat suddenly dry.

"Yeah?"

"Well… the thing is…" She laughed, "Well this is ridiculous… I mean…"

"Is this going anywhere?"

"Well it's like this… you see… I've always wanted to say… just that… sometimes I…"

"What are you stalling for?"

"Look. Sometimes I feel… feelings… that I don't understand."

"That's called confuse ray."

"It's not a confuse ray!"

"Tormented?"

"No!"

"Attracted?"

"N-Yes! It's like attract."

"Ooh." He whispered. Laura blushed.

"Yeah. I think I-"

"Has Larkspur been putting something in your food?"

"No!" Laura shouted at him. Ruining the moment again.

#-#-#-#-#

Laura was brought of her daydream as she heard a familiar phrase.

"What are you stalling for?" Ganon asked the Quilava. Sophie fiddled with her paws again.

"Like I said. It's awkward. I-" Laura grabbed Ganon's arm and tugged him out of the conversation.

"Don't do this. It'll get hideously complicated." She pleaded. Ganon raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know?" He asked her.

"I just know that she loves this trainer, and the only person that can tell him that is herself." She said. Ganon's other eyebrow went up as well.

"You're good." Sophie said, now addressing Laura, "You've been in love before haven't you."

"I still am." She answered, blushing and looking at the sky, "And he's out there somewhere. I'll find him."

Moxis made a retching sound as he pretended throwing up over the side of the table. Sophie shoved him again, and he fell off.

"Don't you have any control over your Pokemon?" Benjamin asked. Ganon shook his head.

"None whatsoever. They're not mine. He works with the centre, and she's a guest."

"Oh! So you must be the new kid at the centre that my mum was on about. I wanted to talk to you."

"This conversation is over." Moxis said, showing surprising strength for such a small Pokemon by hauling Ganon to his feet. They immediately moved away from the table, and Sophie moved back to sit next to Benjamin.

"What about your Ice-cream?" He called after them. Moxis grunted, and carried on, leaving Sophie to steal Laura's Ice-Cream.

* * *

As soon as Moxis re-entered the PokeCentre, his father was there to greet him. He was evidently not in a good mood.

"You. Downstairs. Now. You're late."

"Late for what?" Moxis asked.

"Maybe something as inconspicuous as the demo?" He said, grabbing his wrist.

"But dad, that's not for another six hours!"

"It's Colonel on duty! You have to help with setting up like the rest of us. You're in Biologist B."

"Yoo hoo!" Melissa called to him from behind the counter. Lazlo spun around on his heel.

"Oh for goodness sake! Stop pestering me about it!" He shouted at her, teleporting away immediately with Moxis. Ganon and Laura both sweatdropped.

"What was that about?" She asked him, still looking at where Lazlo was.

"No idea."

"Hey hey hey! Boy!" Melissa shouted at him. He grimaced.

"I have a name you know, you can call me by it at least once." Melissa rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. You were supposed to be on desk duty. I've got work downstairs, but until you get started, I'm rooted to this desk."

Ganon growled, and reluctantly took his place behind the desk. Melissa immediately sprinted away into the backrooms.

"Not even a thank-you." He grumbled, slouching immediately onto the desk. He felt something kick him, and he looked up to see a Gallade had just teleported in.

"Don't slouch kid. You'll lose your fighters stance." Kotor said as he held out a hand, "Moxis says you've still got the laser. Hand it over."

Ganon obliged, untying the holster from his belt, and holding it out for Kotor to take. The Gallade pulled the laser out of its holster, and checked the sights.

"My my… you've got a very finely balanced weapon here. Someone stuck chewing gum in the side of mine, and I have to counter the difference. But this baby... practically an extension of your arm. Man I could take out an entire legion and then some with this baby. But still… Lazlo's locked it remotely. Such a waste."

He then teleported back out of the room, and down into the underground where the rest of the staff were assembled. He walked over to Lazlo, and handed the gun back to him.

"Your gun Colonel." He whispered. Lazlo nodded, and clipped it back onto his belt. Kenai waited until everyone had settled down, before stepping up onto his projects podium.

"Okay people. We've got six hours to prepare. This thing has to go like clockwork, because then at least if we don't get a living specimen, we'll still keep them just by looking professional. So… Biologist team A. Finalise the Primary Serum. Biologist team B, the secondaries. Biologists C, sample extrusion."

"You're not jabbing another needle in me!" Kotor yelled out over the crowd. Some of the assembled party sniggered, but Kenai simply frowned.

"Don't interrupt. There are no more needles for you this experiment Kotor."

"That's a relief."

A large hoard of Pokemon moved out of the crowd towards their designated area.

"Engineering A on the main section and Engineering B on the Engine." Another group composed solely of Machops in oily overalls moved out and split in half, one part towards the machine, and another towards a lift in the corner.

"Porygons, Check for last minute software bugs." Four Porygons phased out of view.

"Local Guards, household security. " About ninety more generic Pokemon left the floor, leaving just twenty behind, the strongest physical specimens that Razor possessed.

"Elite Guards, Specimen suppression."

"Come on!" Kotor called up, "No specimen has been powerful enough to even open its eyes, let alone break out and attack."

"Kotor, you are aware it's you we're cloning." Kenai said. Kotor sweatdropped.

"Oh yeah. Charge up every weapon! It'll be insanely powerful and downright murderous!" He called to the rest of the guards. They all started laughing. Kotor could feel the heat rushing through his face, and he growled menacingly. In a split second, he had whipped out his handgun, and shot three of the guards, an Electabuzz, a Magmar, and a Sneasel, with their relevant setting on the gun. They were all bowled over, and the laughter immediately stopped.

"Now imagine that pumped up as much as this machine promises. And this time, he won't be so merciful." He said, placing the gun back in its holster. The rest of the group were practically tripping over themselves trying to get to work, leaving only three people in the room. Kenai, Kotor, and Lazlo.

"Certainly gets people moving that." Kenai said thoughtfully, "Just try not to shoot your comrades too often."

"I've noticed you're not going anywhere Lazlo." Kotor said. The Lucario nodded, and held up one of his paws. He still hadn't got around to painting over the crystal again, and Kotor blanched at the sight.

"I've got the hardest job. That crystal's as much a part of me as my leg."

"With the exception it's much more responsive. Which is why you are to return to your quarters, and relax with your Aurega." Kenai said, "You must be calm, yet focussed."

"He gets to do Aura Yoga?!" Kotor said incredulously. Lazlo smiled.

"Do you want to take my place keeping that in check?" He asked.

Whatever colour was left in Kotor's face vanished, and he left in as much of a hurry as the rest of the elites.

"Thought not." He finished.

* * *


End file.
